My Blade
by Sp1derAp0calypse
Summary: So basically, you take the characters from SAO, and that's all good. And then you take the idea of SAO, and that's all good. And then you take the plotline of SAO, and you throw that out the window. Literally just a new story with SAO's characters, concepts, and mostly their character relationships. (I'm not sure if I need to say this, but I don't own this at all).
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

-Inside SAO: Floor One-

Kirigaya Kazuto, or rather, Kirito, had just been told not less than thirty minutes ago that this world was no longer a game. This world he had beta-tested and fallen in love with, this world of swords, was no longer just an escape from reality; it _was_ reality. So many feelings coursed through Kirito that he found them hard to count; confusion, rage, doubt, fear, anxiety, stress, nervousness. All of them came together to form a single verdict: survival. He would survive. Kazuto – no – Kirito, would survive this world. That was the decision he had reached.

Kirito was running away from The Town of Beginnings. After spending some time upgrading his sword from an NPC blacksmith shop with the starting money all starting players were provided, he took off. His sword was everything, he had decided. His life was in the hands of that sword, so he would have it be in top-tier condition. Kirito had already mapped out his route; he knew that even though he had a head-start on almost everyone, it wouldn't be long before the players in The Town of Beginnings would move out and start farming the fields in the surrounding area. That was why he needed to get to the next town, and why he was currently running through a large field, away from The Town of Beginnings.

The field was large; stretching in all directions for miles. It was also the greenest thing on the first floor of SAO, and had relatively short grass. All of this was to make the monsters that spawned here easier to spot and fight with their pink and gray colors and their tendency to ambush. The Town of Beginnings in the background seemed just as bright, despite its buildings and walls being gray. Maybe it was just coded to seem bright somehow.

As Kirito ran, he checked the stats of his gear:

 _Beginning Light Armor – 3 Defense, Infinite Durability_

 _[Upgraded] Beginning Sword (One-Hand) – 4 Attack, Infinite Durability_

Kirito beta-tested the game, so he understood what those stats meant to his limits. The sword had 4 attack, but the attack stat meant very little compared to skill. That 4 attack meant that an average sword swing would do 4 damage, but it could do more depending on the length of the strike, the depth of the strike, the place that was struck, and several more variables. That was why the armor naturally seemed powerful, because you would almost never get struck by an average sword swing by a player, and the monsters followed the same rule as swords did when it came to damage dealt.

Kirito equipped his sword and continued to run through the field. In the distance were tall mountains with a path that ran between them; that was Kirito's route. The route would lead him to the next town, and even though the route looked dangerous, Kirito knew it wasn't. A growling caught Kirito's attention. He looked ahead and spotted a Wolf staring right at him, snarling and standing in attack pose.

Kirito activated a sword skill and continued to run towards the Wolf; it was in the way. In the way of his route. In the way of his freedom. In the way of his survival. With a ferocious battle yell, Kirito unleashed his sword skill, Driving Slash. At the same moment, the Wolf leaped. Jumping to the side, Kirito dodged the Wolf while simultaneously connecting his sword with the Wolf's head; that was a 3x damage multiplier. His sword continued to drive through the Wolf's body, applying two more ticks of non-multiplied attack damage to the Wolf. The Wolf, with 25 health, had been over-killed by 15 damage; Driving Slash had doubled the sword's attack.

Kirito knew all of this, and didn't stop running for a moment. He glanced at the amount of Col and experience earned and then clicked 'Accept' on the notification, never slowing his run; he wanted to get to the next town as fast as possible.


	2. Chapter 1: Rescue

**Chapter 1: Rescue**

A howl sounded from somewhere Kirito couldn't see. He was in the middle of the mountain path, where Snow Wolves spawned instead of the regular Wolf. Snow Wolves had 30 health, a mere 5 more than regular Wolves, but followed a different attack strategy. Unlike regular Wolves, Snow Wolves worked in small packs of anywhere from three to five. Kirito, who knew the path well, knew that Snow Wolves wouldn't appear unless you were off the path, and generally tried to lure their victims into a fight before the rest of the pack revealed themselves.

Kirito also knew that Snow Wolves didn't howl unless they had circled their prey – it was the pack leader's signal to pounce. Kirito thought quickly. He had been running nonstop towards the next town, only slowing briefly to dispatch a Wolf or two, but never stopping. If someone was just as far up the path as himself, they can't have been a high enough level to deal with a pack of Snow Wolves, and no one who knew how to deal with Snow Wolves would allow themselves to be surrounded.

In an instant Kirito had abandoned the path and was sprinting in the direction he had heard the howl. Leaving the lightly snow-covered stone path behind him, Kirito ran towards the snowy mountain to the right of the path; most decidedly, someone needed help.

As Kirito reached the peak of a small slope, he saw a small field of snow in front of him, making up the area around the base of the mountain. In the middle of the field was the pack of Snow Wolves Kirito had heard, three of them. They were arranged in a triangle formation, and in the middle was a cloaked figure, wielding a rapier. The figure's characteristics were indistinguishable due to the cloak they were wearing, but Kirito could see the health bars of all of them. Two of the wolves were in the yellow, about half of their health depleted, and the last one was in the green, barely even touched.

The cloaked figure however, was in the deep yellow; it was almost in the red. Kirito started running towards the Snow Wolf triangle; the cloaked figure was running out of energy, and the Snow Wolves knew it. One of the Snow Wolves in the yellow health pounced at the cloaked figure, which deftly sidestepped the Snow Wolf and stabbed at its side with a simple sword skill: Sting. The Snow Wolf's health dropped to low yellow, but still didn't fall into the red. At the same moment the cloaked figure drew their rapier back for a second strike, the Snow Wolf in green health lunged at their legs, landing a bite at the unprotected area for a single tick of damage. The cloaked figure changed the direction of their rapier and swung downwards, landing a swipe on the top of the Snow Wolf that caused it to disconnect its jaws and jump backwards, away from the sword; it's health was barely affected. Unlike the Snow Wolf however, the cloaked figure's health fell into the red. The last Snow Wolf spotted its opportunity. With their rapier too far away too do anything, the Snow Wolf lunged at the cloaked figure's open front. The cloaked figure spotted the Snow Wolf and knew it was too late to do anything; they would die. The cloaked figure closed their eyes and prepared for death.

The sound of rapid footsteps followed by a sword entering flesh made the cloaked figure open their eyes in confusion; they weren't dead yet. In front of them was a young boy in light blue-colored armor with his back to the cloaked figure. His sword was embedded into the Snow Wolf's side, who was lying on the ground, helpless. Another tick of damage and the Snow Wolf died, shattering into tiny red squares that dissipated into the air within seconds. The Snow Wolves now numbered two; they wouldn't be able to surround their prey anymore, but they knew they were close to a kill.

The other Snow Wolf in yellow health ran towards the cloaked figure, identifying the weakest individual. "Duck!" Kirito commanded. Instinctively obeying, the cloaked figure ducked to the ground and heard the swing of a sword above them; it was Kirito's sword skill: Driving Slash. The sword connected with the Snow Wolf's head, finishing its health off and making it shatter into tiny red squares. Kirito turned his attention to the last Snow Wolf, who was in near perfect health, but understood that it would not be able to reach its prey without going through this new opponent.

The cloaked figure finally stood up and saw their rescuer just as he finished off the last Snow Wolf, and caught a glimpse of the boy's face. He seemed young, maybe in his late teens, but his face was hardened with the fierce look of an experienced battle veteran on his face. A notification appeared, saying Victory! and showing the stats of the battle. Pressing 'Accept', the cloaked figure's vision started to go out as they fell backwards into the soft snow.

A second screen had appeared for Kirito, letting him know that he had leveled up. Putting one point each into Strength, Agility, and Precision, Kirito closed the Level Up! menu and looked at the Victory! menu. He noted that four monsters had been killed, meaning the cloaked figure had killed one before he had arrived to see the battle. As he closed that menu as well, he heard a soft 'thump!' behind him. Spinning around, Kirito saw that the cloaked figure had passed out.

The hood of the cloaked figure had fallen off, revealing the small face that, thankfully, was breathing, and long, hazel hair. _She's a girl,_ Kirito noted. _And a cute one at that._ Kirito shunned the last thought away; now was not the time for those kinds of thoughts. Kirito glanced around and saw nothing but the wide snow-field. He sighed; he would have to carry her out of here and to the next town. If he stuck to the path, monsters wouldn't attack him, and leaving her here wasn't an option.


	3. Chapter 2: Thanks

**Chapter 2: Thanks**

Asuna slowly opened to her eyes to reveal a wooden ceiling above her. That wasn't right…when did she get in a house? Wait…where was she last? She slowly started to piece together what had happened. _I was in a snow field…I fought some Snow Wolves…but I was losing…Oh! But then_ he _came!_ Asuna's head snapped up out of the bed and she scanned the room. It was a hotel room all right; everything in the tiny room was basic, from the blue blankets on her bed to the brown table and chairs at the end of the room. Behind the chairs was a sink, and next to it, a small refrigerator. At the end of the room was a small window, where the morning sunlight lit up the room. There was a second bed in the room as well, Asuna noticed, where a lump in the blankets was rising and falling slowly and steadily. Wanting a better look at her rescuer, Asuna slid out of the blue blankets and peered over her his bed.

 _He looks…boyish_ she realized. His hair was black and messy, and his face was small and peaceful. The peaceful expression, she realized, looked off. When he had saved her from the Snow Wolves, she had gotten a small glance at his face, and was remembering what it looked like. _It was fierce, and intimidating,_ she realized. _But now he looks peaceful and calm. Where is the fierce warrior that saved me?_ Asuna continued to gaze at his peaceful face for a short while. _He's kind of cute,_ she realized. She quickly shamed her thought away. _This is no world for such thoughts._

Kirito started to stir, slightly startling Asuna. She quickly jumped back to the bed she had been sleeping in and put her hood back on. As Kirito sat up, she averted her gaze to the floor next to his bed. A long yawn was heard before Kirito realized that he was not the only one sitting up. "Oh, you're awake!" Asuna deemed his voice to be genuinely happy with this new development. His voice wasn't as deep or rough as she had expected it to be.

"Thanks…for saving me," Asuna responded simply. Kirito noticed that her hands were in her lap, her hood was on, and her gaze was to the floor, hiding her eyes behind the hood; she was nervous.

"It was nothing," Kirito responded, successfully sounding carefree. "Anyone would have done it in my place."

Asuna was confused. _He didn't possibly save me for nothing; not in this world of survival._ "Oh. Well…I can pay for whatever I cost you at-"

Kirito cut her off quickly. "Nah, I don't want money. I didn't save you because I thought I would get something out of it."

"Oh. Thanks I guess…I'll go now," she stood up and started heading for the door.

"Wait!" Asuna stopped, but didn't turn her head. "I was a beta-tester, so I know some of the best 'Quests' and monster spawn spots in the earlier floors, plus I'm willing to bet that you really don't know what you're doing. No offense, but I saw that you fell prey to a pack of Snow Wolves and your rapier didn't do much damage, meaning you haven't upgraded it yet. Am I right?"

Asuna wasn't offended in the slightest, he was completely right. "Yeah. I really don't know what I'm doing, but I'll figure it out."

Before she could start for the door again, Kirito interrupted, "But I can help you learn faster, and I really don't want anything in return."

Asuna was relieved, though she didn't show it. "Alright," she said, smiling. A beta-tester helping her would help her not only get used to the game, but it would give her a head-start on all the other players. She took off her hood and turned to look at Kirito, and saw his eyes; they were deep pools of black, just like the color of his hair. Kirito saw her eyes as well, hazel, just like her hair. Kirito smiled and opened his menu. A few buttons later, Asuna received a notification that a 'Kirito' would like to be her friend. "I'm Kirito," he said as he sent the request.

Asuna smiled and accepted the request, "I'm Asuna," she responded.


	4. Chapter 3: Educated

**Chapter 3:** **Educated**

Kirito and Asuna were walking down one of the stone streets in the town they had stayed the night in. The sides of the streets were filled with wooden carts run by NPC's that hosted a large array of goods, anywhere from jewelry to fruit to cloth. Asuna's eyes sparkled as she ran from shop to shop, admiring everything she saw. Kirito was less interested in the shops, and merely glanced at them as he passed, his eyes mostly scanning the gray, stone road ahead in search of a NPC blacksmith.

"Hey Asuna," Kirito stole Asuna's attention away from a NPC cart sporting several colorful necklaces. Catching up to his stride, Asuna walked by his side as she responded "Yeah?"

"Was that rapier the first weapon that you tried out?"

Asuna thought for a moment before responding, "No. I tried out a sword and a katana first before I decided on this rapier. I liked the lightness of it."

Kirito grinned. "Perfect," he commented. "I just wanted to make sure that the rapier was really the weapon you wanted to use. When you level up, you get a notification and a screen that gives you the option to level up certain categories, called Attributes. Every time you level up, you get Attribute points. What you put your Attribute points into decides what gear you will be able to use, which is why it matters that you want to use a rapier. Also, once you put your points into an Attribute, you can't change it back."

Asuna nodded, understanding everything that she was being told so far. Kirito continued, "There are five Attributes. Health, Endurance, Strength, Agility, and Precision. Health is exactly what it sounds like; it gives you health. It's mostly on used by tanks, because you get health through leveling up anyways."

Asuna interrupted, "Tanks?"

"People with a lot of health and defense, which makes them really hard to kill, but they don't do a lot of damage themselves. They're extremely useful in group combat because they can take a lot of damage from monsters, but since they can't do a lot of damage they aren't very good on their own."

Asuna nodded, understanding the information about Health now.

"Endurance. Endurance is used to determine whether or not you can wear heavy armor. Heavy armor slows you down though and is pretty much only used by tanks as well. Endurance also affects your character's endurance, like how far you can run, but since that can be improved normally just like a regular person, it's not super important. Then there's Strength; that's what I'll be putting my points into. Strength doesn't actually improve your damage, but it does allow you to hold heavier swords. It also improved your actual character strength, but if you're using a rapier you don't have to worry about Strength."

Kirito glanced at Asuna, who seemed to be understanding everything so far before he continued. "Agility is the next one, and the other Attribute I'll be putting my points into, as well as the Attribute you should put your points into. Agility also affects what weapons you can use; especially rapiers. Agility affects how fast you can move and how fast you can attack and stuff like that, as well as improving your agility as a character overall. Lastly, there's Precision. Precision is the other Attribute you should put your points into, because it affects weapon accuracy. If you're striking a lot with your rapier, weapon accuracy will really help you make sure you land several strikes in critical areas on your enemy. It also affects stuff like knife-throwing and blocking. Got all that?"

"Yeah I think so. I should put my points largely in Agility and Precision, allowing me to strike fast and deadly with my rapier."

Kirito smiled, "Exactly. Also, you don't have unlimited Attribute points. The highest level you can reach in SAO is 100. Out of those 100 Levels, 50 of them reward you with 3 Attribute points, and 50 of them reward you with 2 Attribute points. If you check right now, you should have 2 Attribute points to spend."

Asuna opened her menu and found that was he said was true. She quickly put one into Agility and one into Precision.

Kirito continued, "That means that at Level 100 you will have earned 250 Attribute points. Each Attribute maxes out at 100, which means you can max out two Attributes and then have an extra 50 left over. I'll be putting my extra 50 into Precision, because knife-throwing is good for hunting and blocking is important to me for when I can't dodge."

Asuna thought for a moment about what she would put her other 50 points into. "I think…I'll put my extra 50 points into Strength. It makes you stronger right? So my rapier will feel lighter and I'll be able to strike even faster." She turned to Kirito to see his face, which was beaming.

"See? You got it already. Now then, skills. Skills are like Attributes, except they level up through use, and max out at 1000. There are hundreds of skills, including mace-using, sword-using, katana-using, rapier-using, knife throwing, tracking, listening, cooking, blocking. Pretty much anything you could imagine, there's a skill for it."

"Wait. Did you say cooking?" Asuna's interest was piqued. She had loved cooking ever since she was a kid; could cooking really be an option in this world of swords and death?

"Yeah. Cooking. Anyways, as you level up the skill by doing said skill, you get better at it. That's why you really don't have to worry about it, because you'll naturally get stronger as long as you stick to the same play-style and don't switch weapon types halfway through."

Asuna thought she understood it all, but to her horror Kirito continued.

"Lastly, we have Durability. If the Durability of an item reaches zero, it gets destroyed; it's gone forever. If it's something like armor or a weapon, the usefulness of it decreases with the Durability, so you won't have to check the stats of your gear to know when it's durability is getting low. Whenever the durability is low, just go to a smith and they can put the durability right back up."

Kirito stopped speaking for a while and Asuna was sure he was done. Just as she had decided to be relieved, he spoke up again, and her heart dropped. "Oh! There's the smith!" Kirito pointed to a gray shop that looked to be one of the only indoor shops on the street. A large window however, allowed customers to stay outside while the smith did whatever the customer needed.

Approaching the smith, Asuna and Kirito both noticed that the shop owner didn't have an icon above their head; they were an NPC. It wasn't a surprise really, Kirito knew that not many players would have reached this town by now, but the occasional player wandering the shops let Kirito know that some players had braved the path from The Town of Beginnings already. "Alright Asuna, use your Col to upgrade your rapier," and with that Kirito walked off to admire a shop next to the blacksmith.

After a simple greeting to the NPC shop-owner, Asuna upgraded her rapier and glanced at the new stats.

 _[Upgraded] Beginning Rapier – 3 Attack, Infinite Durability_

Thanking the smith, Asuna found Kirito at a cloak shop next door to the smith. "It only went up by one attack," she said, showing Kirito the stats. "But I suppose that still matters a lot because I'll be striking more than a sword will, right?"

Kirito beamed with pride, and Asuna smiled shyly as she saw his face. "You're getting this already. Now then, let's go kill some monsters."


	5. Chapter 4: Combat

**Chapter 4: Combat**

Kirito and Asuna stood in a snowy field that had small and large hills all over, making it impossible to see very far in any direction unless you were on top of one of the larger hills. There was snow falling from the sky, but it never added any depth to the snow on the ground. Behind Kirito and Asuna was the city with it's great, stone walls towering to the point where the buildings inside were hidden from view. Kirito had told Asuna that "We're hunting Snow Wolves. We won't go far from the town, so the packs will be smaller, and this time there will be two of us and your rapier is upgraded, so it will be much easier." Asuna knew he only said this to comfort her, but she felt confident. She wasn't sure why, but despite his boyish face and soft voice, she had the feeling that he wielded considerable power; nothing would touch her as long as she was with him.

"Alright Asuna. I know you know how to use sword skills, because I saw you use some when you were fighting the Snow Wolves, but I want to see just how much you know." Asuna grinned and readied her first sword skill; she had found the combat system to be the easiest thing to understand. Unleashing her simple sword, Sting, so stabbed at the air once. Before Kirito could comment, she had already activated another sword skill, Blade Flurry. She stabbed at the air several times, striking nearly the same spot every time. Activating her final sword skill, she ran forward before jumping into the air and activating Piercing Rain. Now midair, she struck downwards several times, sure to hit any enemy's head and deal serious damage, before she landed softly and relaxed her rapier.

Kirito was, frankly, surprised. Asuna, who had turned to see his opinion, started laughing at the expression Kirito had been wearing. Closing his mouth, Kirito assessed her performance in his head. _She moved a lot faster than I expected, and was really good about using her sword skills back to back._ "Alright, that was pretty good. Let's go Snow Wolf hunting," Kirito grinned with excitement.

Kirito and Asuna found themselves in the middle of a pack of four Snow Wolves. The Snow Wolves had used the terrain to their advantage, moving silently and unseen around the two using the hills and snow before revealing themselves all at once. Kirito and Asuna stood back to back, eyes narrowed and sword arms tense. "Think you can handle those two?" Kirito asked.

[Time Shift]

Asuna responded with a smile on her face, "Why? Need me to take a third?"

Before Kirito could respond, one of the Snow Wolves let out a howl, signaling that the fight had begun. One of the Snow Wolves on either side of two charged, leaving the other two behind to look for an opportunity to strike. Kirito let out a ferocious battlecry and charged his opponent, readying the sword skill Driving Slash. The Snow Wolf got within range and leaped at Kirito, bright, yellow eyes glaring and sharp, yellow teeth bared. Kirito dodged by jumping to the left and released his sword skill diagonally upwards, striking the Snow Wolf's side. Without the slightest delay, Kirito chained his sword skill with another, Horizontal Slash, and used the momentum of his previous sword skill to spin around and slash the Snow Wolf from the back to the front. The Snow Wolf was knocked back several feet and landed in the snow, his health in the red. The other Snow Wolf that had not attacked Kirito was left at a loss; it had not found an opportunity to strike because of Kirito's speed.

Asuna had done equally as well with her opponent. After hearing Kirito's battlecry, she knew the area around her was clear, so when the Snow Wolf lunged at her, she readied the sword skill Sting and dodged to the left, letting the Snow Wolf fly past her as she released her sword skill, nailing it in the side. The Snow Wolf landed roughly, not recovering in time before it ate Asuna's second sword skill, Blade Flurry, taking several shots in the head. Hearing something behind her, Asuna quickly ended her attack and jumped to the left, narrowly avoiding the second Snow Wolf as it flew past where her head had been only seconds before; she was not as fast as Kirito had been. She slashed its side twice with the sword skill Cross Slash, making an X on its side and leaving it in the high yellow health.

Kirito glanced at Asuna, and noticed that one of her opponents were nearly dead and the other had taken considerable damage, while she was untouched. _Guess it's time for me to show off,_ he grinned. Kirito watched the second Snow Wolf start to charge him from the front, and already knew by its attack pattern that the Snow Wolf behind him had recovered and was charging him from behind as well. Charging his sword skill, Driving Slash, Kirito waited until the Snow Wolf in front of him jumped, and then turned around and slashed the Snow Wolf behind him in the face, dropping its health to zero and making it shatter into tiny red squares. Then, jumping left, he activated Driving Slash again, dodging the healthy Snow Wolf and then striking it from underneath with a wide and powerful arc, sending it a few feet into the air. Jumping into the air after it, Kirito started to show off, with his sword skill Falling Star. Now level with the limp body of the Snow Wolf, Kirito unleashed his sword skill, striking it quickly in an X pattern before raising his sword high above his head and then bringing it crashing down on the Snow Wolf's neck. Plummeting back to the ground, a large area of snow was disturbed as he landed, sending snow everywhere and making an artificial fog of white.

As the snow cloud cleared, tiny red squares could be seen disappearing with it; decapitation was an insta-kill. With the snow cloud completely cleared, Kirito saw Asuna standing there with an expression of amusement on her face. A Victory! screen appeared in both Asuna and Kirito's vision, as well as a Level Up! for Asuna. Putting her points one each in Strength, Agility, and Precision, Asuna pressed the 'Accept' button on both menus before commenting on Kirito's fight. "What took you so long?" she teased.

Kirito smiled and pressed the 'Accept' button on his menu as well. "Ok. You beat me, I admit it. You're pretty good at combat, so I think you can handle this; I accepted a 'Quest' back in town while you were upgrading your rapier. At the base of that mountain over there," Kirito pointed to a snowy mountain not far in the distance. "There's a cave. The 'Quest' is to kill the Bandits there and then come back to let them know the Bandits are dead."

Asuna looked at the base of the mountain, and saw a black hole near the base that she supposed could be a cave. "Alright," she said. "Let's go!"


	6. Chapter 5: Party

**Chapter 5: Party**

Asuna and Kirito stood on what appeared to be fresh snow, lightly covering the stone surface that was around the base of the mountain. The snow however, would always be fresh, as Kirito knew. In front of Kirito and Asuna was a cave, that, Kirito had claimed, was the cave for the 'Quest'. The two had fought another pack of Snow Wolves on their way to the cave, and were both still running on adrenaline. Without a second thought, Asuna walked to the cave. Before she could enter the cave however, she seemed to hit an invisible wall. A notification appeared that said: "'Quest' Required".

Confused, Asuna turned to address Kirito. "I thought you accepted the quest?"

Kirito smiled and walked past her, into the cave a bit, and then walked back, unaffected by the invisible barrier Asuna had encountered. " _I_ did. You didn't. If you want to be able to do the quest with me, you have to be in the same 'Party' as me." Kirito opened up his menu, and, a few buttons later, a notification had appeared on Asuna's vision letting her know that she had been invited to join Kirito's 'Party'. Clicking 'Accept', Asuna found she was now able to pass through the previous barrier without trouble. She also found that there was another healthbar that appeared below hers, with the nametag 'Kirito' next to it.

Kirito started explaining things, as he always did. "As part of a 'Party', you can do something called 'Switching'; it's extremely useful. The system will recognize a 'Switch' properly if you are in a 'Party' with the other person, meaning that whatever monster you're facing will now acknowledge the person who 'Switched' in to be its new opponent. It allows someone to parry or tank an attack, and then have the other person Switch in to deal serious damage while the monster is open. I'll rush in first and parry the Bandit's attack since sword's are better for parrying, then you Switch in and hit it with your rapier.

Asuna was shocked. _He's putting_ me _in charge of damage instead of him?_

"Alright," he said, motioning to the cave, "Let's go!"

The cave was large, allowing for a large group to walk in, and was well lit by lots of large air holes that also let the sunlight pour in. The cave turned every once in a while, not letting anyone see what was awaiting them further into the cave, even though it didn't seem to get any deeper.

"So Kirito…have you ever been in a 'Party' before?" Asuna tried conversation.

"No. I avoid them because generally 'Party' members slow me down, and I would much rather rely on myself than someone else."

"I thought so. You were traveling alone on that path from The Town of Beginnings, which means either your friends didn't get on, or you don't have any friends that play this game. I was alone because I don't know anyone else that plays this game, so I decided to just take off."

"It's the latter. I'm willing to bet that all 100 of the beta testers are playing right now, because they know how important it is to be first in an MMORPG. People will only continue to get better and better, so if you're in the middle when it comes to levels or power, you won't really matter towards clearing the game. I didn't make friends with any of the beta testers because most of them just hung out in The Town of Beginnings and admired the flawless NPC coding, while I instead took off and immediately started fighting monsters." Kirito's thoughts flashed back to a man in a red bandanna. "Although I did meet a man named Klein, but he had friends waiting for him, and I didn't want to haul around a large group of people.

Asuna thought for a moment about her own position. "So…how long are you going to keep me around for?"

Kirito didn't respond for a second; he hadn't really thought about it. _How long_ do _I keep her around for? Until the end of this 'Quest'? When we get back to town? When I have to renew the hotel payment? Until she starts slowing me down?_ "I don't know, I haven't thought about it," he responded.

"Because if you're only keeping me around because you think I need protecting, I can –"

Kirito cut her off quickly, "No, that's not it. Now that you know how to upgrade your weapon and what to use your Attribute points on, I'm certain you could hold your own." Kirito had sounded so sure, that Asuna blushed slightly from his flattery.

"Then why did you bring me on this 'Quest' with you? I'm sure you could do it on your own. I've seen you in combat."

"I don't know. I guess it's because you're pretty good at combat, and haven't slowed me down yet."

An awkward silence fell, as neither could think of anything to say. After another turn in the cave, Kirito came up with his answer. "How about this? As long as you pay your half of the rent for the hotel rooms and don't slow me down, I'll stay partied with you." Kirito teased, his smile evident in his words.

Asuna smiled slyly and responded, "How do you know I'll let you stay partied with me?"

Kirito was about to respond, but Asuna spotted a spot where the cave opened up and rushed forwards. Kirito chased after her.


	7. Chapter 6: Switch!

**Chapter 6: Switch!**

Kirito parried the Goblin Bandit's swing with his own, knocking the Goblin Bandit off-balance and wide open to attacks. "Switch!" Kirito's voice rang out through the cavern as he jumped backwards. His enemy was a green, hideous looking humanoid known as a Goblin, about as big as he was and wielding a shortsword, but only wearing basic clothing; no armor. Asuna quickly filled the space he had previously occupied, and unleashed her sword skill, Blade Flurry, dealing serious damage to the Goblin Bandit when two of her attacks connected with its neck. Recovering faster than both Asuna and Kirito had expected, the Goblin Bandit suddenly swung it's shortsword towards Asuna's head. "Asuna!" Kirito yelled out, knowing the attack wouldn't kill, but a serious blow to the head could send her into the deep yellow.

But Asuna ducked downwards and narrowly avoided the shortsword, attacking its legs with a quickly charged sword skill, Cross Slash. Jumping backwards, she yelled her own "Switch!" and left Kirito to deal with the fully recovered monster. Charging forwards, Kirito met the downswing of the Goblin Bandit's shortsword with his own swing upwards using the sword skill Parry, and once again knocked the monster off-balance. Yelling "Switch!" he jumped backwards and left Asuna to finish it off, which she did with the use of Piercing Rain. Landing on the ground as the Goblin Bandit shattered into tiny, red squares, she pressed 'Accept' on her Victory! notification and put the two points from her Level Up! notification into 'Agility' and 'Precision'. Turning back towards Kirito, who had already put his points in 'Strength' and 'Agility', she sheepishly asked, "How'd I do?"

Kirito was once again amazed by her skill, "Amazing!" he exclaimed. Asuna blushed and turned away so she was no longer facing him to hide her blush. _Apparently, flattery is my weak point,_ she noted. "Alright," Asuna said, pointing to a cave at the opposite end of the cavern, "Let's go."

As they walked down the cave, Kirito walked slightly behind Asuna, and couldn't stop staring at her in amazement. _She claims this is her first VRMMORPG, but the way she dodged that attack by the Goblin Bandit, and her skill with chaining her sword skill's together all say that she is an experienced veteran at this!_ Kirito's thoughts raced with praise for Asuna's abilities. _And she 'Switches' so well that you would never guess this was her first time in a 'Party'!_

Asuna interrupted his thoughts, "So what's up ahead?"

Kirito thought back to when he had done this 'Quest' in the beta test before answering. "Well if I remember correctly, the cave keeps going until it goes a little but deeper and then gets dark, but after it gets dark there should only be a little more to go before we come across the end of the cave, which is a little bit smaller than the cavern we were just in. All along the walls will be torches lighting the room and banners proclaiming the area to be property of the Bandits. Below the torches and banners will be treasure chests filled with gold and jewels, but we won't be able to touch them. At the end of the room will be a throne about 10 feet tall, with a mini-boss named Bandit Chief sitting in it. He has a longsword instead of a shortsword and is bigger than the other Goblin Bandits that we've been fighting. He also has about 500 health.

"What about his attacks? Will he attack different and do more damage than the others?"

Kirito knew that she had gotten nervous at the mention of the word 'boss'. "Well yeah, but a single hit won't kill you, and if we follow the same strategy as before, we can take him out without taking a single hit. Besides, he won't attack until after his two bodyguards have been attacked. His bodyguards are exactly the same as the rest of the Goblin Bandits we've been facing, except these ones have leather helmets, so it soaks up some of the damage from the normal 3x damage multiplier for hitting a monster in the head."

It wasn't long before Asuna noticed that they no longer had any skylights, and the cave was continuing to get deeper and darker. After another turn in the cave, Asuna and Kirito came to the room that Kirito had rather accurately described. The only thing that Kirito had not described in completely accurate detail, was the Bandit Chief. About 8 feet tall, his sword was as long and thick as his arm. He was wearing leather armor and boots, leaving only his hands and head uncovered.

Kirito, ignoring the perfectly functional set of stairs to the right, jumped the 6 feet from the platform he and Asuna were standing on, landing softly. Asuna followed his lead, landing beside him with her rapier at the ready.

The Bandit Chief's sword arm, the right one, shot out and pointed his sword at Kirito and Asuna. "Get them!" he screamed, his voice low and furious. The two helmet-wearing Goblin Bandits responded by charging Kirito and Asuna with their shortswords.

Asuna glanced at Kirito, and once again saw her rescuer. His boyish face suddenly morphed from peaceful and carefree to fierce and dangerous-looking. In an instant, he had rushed forwards, charging his sword skill, Parry. He met the first Goblin Bandit by deflecting its sword swing, knocking it off balance and leaving it open for Asuna to strike. "Switch!" Kirito yelled out, but he didn't jump backwards. He instead rushed to the next Goblin Bandit, who was only a few paces behind the first one. Readying Driving Slash, Kirito dodged to the right of the Goblin Bandit and slashed sideways, catching the side of the Goblin Bandit and sending it sprawling on the ground, scrambling to recover.

Asuna had taken full advantage of the vulnerability of the first Goblin Bandit, and activated Piercing Rain, jumping into the air and jabbing at the Goblin Bandit three times, two of which connected with its neck. Falling back to the ground before the Goblin Bandit could recover, she activated Cross Slash and slashed twice at the Goblin Bandit's legs. The Goblin Bandit, finally recovering, slashed in a wide arc, which forced Asuna to jump backwards to avoid the attack. Rushing forwards before it could reposition its sword however, Asuna rushed forwards and nailed its front side with Blade Flurry, finishing the Goblin Bandit off.

Kirito's opponent had just recovered when it was met with Kirito's sword skill, Square Strike. Moving with incredible speed, Kirito slashed all four sides of the Goblin Bandit before the combat system counted the damage as being done. After his fourth and final slash, the system calculated the damage dealt as the blue arcs of lights resulting from his sword skill slashes traveled outwards, forming a square and disappearing within milliseconds. The Goblin Bandit shattered.

With both of his bodyguards dead, the Bandit Chief stood up and walked a few steps from his throne. Stopping in the middle of the cavern, he readied his sword arm and announced in a deep and angry-sounding voice, "I'll just have to deal with you myself!".

The mini-boss himself didn't charge, but stood his ground, waiting for his two opponents to make the first move. Kirito glanced back to make sure that Asuna was ready. Asuna spotted his glance and nodded in affirmation.

With a sudden burst of speed, Kirito rushed towards the Bandit Chief. The Bandit Chief sneered and raised his sword, prepared to smash his opponent. As Kirito came within range, the Bandit Chief brought his sword crashing down. Kirito swung his sword upwards and diagonally strongly, successfully parrying the Bandit Chief's attack. The Bandit Chief then swung again, this time diagonally downwards, but was once again met with Kirito's sword skill Parry, which was successful due to Kirito's Strength attribute and considerable skill. As the Bandit Chief raised his sword for another swing, Kirito called out to Asuna, "Get ready! Aim for his head!" With that the Bandit Chief brought his sword crashing down, but Kirito had activated Driving Slash instead of Parry, leaving both himself and the Bandit Chief off-balance. "Switch!" Kirito yelled.

Asuna charged the Bandit Chief and leapt into the air, activating Piercing Rain and landing several jabs on the Bandit Chief's head before falling back to the ground and yelling "Switch!" as the Bandit Chief recovered. As she jumped back and let Kirito parry the attacks again, she saw that she had lowered the Bandit Chief's health bar by about 70 health; this was going to be a long battle.

The rest of the fight continued like this. Kirito would Parry the Bandit Chief's attacks until it was knocked off-balance, and then Asuna would switch in and land about 60 to 80 damage with her Piercing Rain. When the Bandit Chief hit 100 health, Kirito yelled out to Asuna "We'll hit it this last time together to finish it off! Get ready!" Kirito Parried another attack from the Bandit Chief, and as the next swing came down he yelled out, "Now!". Deflecting the downswing of the Bandit Chief's longsword to the side instead of deflecting it, Kirito rushed the now open front of the Bandit Chief, activating a Driving Slash followed by a Horizon Strike on his front, piercing the armor. Asuna ran forwards and jumped into the air, activating her Piercing Rain once again.

The Bandit Chief suddenly stopped moving as his health hit zero. With a roar of defeat, it shattered into hundreds of tiny red squares. A Victory! screen appeared in both Asuna and Kirito's vision, as well as a Level Up! screen announcing to the both of them that they had 'Level Upped' twice. After putting their points in all three of their predetermined categories, Asuna's eyes caught the reward on the Victory! screen.

"5,000 Col?!" she exclaimed. The treasure chests in the room emptied themselves of gold and gems, meant to signify the Col they had earned by defeating the Bandit Chief.

Kirito smiled, "Yeah, but it's split among all people involved, so we each get 2,500 Col."

"That's still a lot," Asuna pointed out.

"Right. Now we head back to the town and let the 'Quest'-giver know that the 'Quest' is complete, and we'll get our reward."

"A reward on top of all of this?" Asuna was clearly ecstatic. "What is the reward?" she asked, remembering that Kirito had done this 'Quest' in the beta test.

"You'll see," was all he responded with.


	8. Chapter 7: Cold

**Chapter 7:** **Cold**

Asuna and Kirito walked out of the cave the way they came, and as they did Asuna studied Kirito's face through side glances. _He looks boyish again,_ she realized. _His face is calm and happy, but when he was in battle, he had a fire in his eyes._

Kirito was preoccupied with looking at the ceiling, and hadn't noticed Asuna's glances. The two walked up the wide, stone cave they had previously been walking down. Feeling through the dark for a little bit, Kirito and Asuna turned a corner, and, finally, light seeped into the cave.

Asuna sighed in a disappointed sort of way. "We have to fight our way back to town before we can rest in that hotel, huh?"

"Umm… I wouldn't really worry about that just yet." Kirito sounded nervous, so Asuna turned to look at his face; he was looking ahead into the cave, where the light started to seep in. His worried expression startled Asuna. _Is someone else in the cave?_ She listened hard but heard no footsteps other than their own.

Staring quizzically at Kirito and keeping a hand on the hilt of her rapier, Asuna followed him as he took lead in the cave. Kirito suddenly stopped underneath one of the air holes in the cave. "Asuna, does the light look orange to you?"

Suddenly Asuna understood; it was the sun set. "Oh. Do the monsters get more difficult or something at night?"

"Not really, but they're naturally stealthier and the spawn rates go up, meaning we'll run into more Snow Wolves than we did coming here." Kirito paused briefly and glanced at Asuna. "Also, I don't know about you, but I'm tired. I could keep fighting if I needed to though."

Asuna was tired as well, but didn't see how she would be able to fall asleep outside of an inn. "But where would we sleep, and how?"

"Right at the mouth of the cave, it's still inside the 'Quest' area, so monsters won't be able to get to us, and there's a rock overhand, so we won't be snowed on; I have a lantern for light and a sleeping-" Kirito realized what the issue was. "You don't have a sleeping bag, do you?"

Asuna started to stress. "No. I didn't know I would need a sleeping bag. When I saw some at a store I just assumed they were for people who really liked camping!" Asuna began to worry that she would be cold all night.

"Alright, use mine."

"Huh?! What about you? What will you do?" Asuna was caught by surprise by his answer; out of all of the possible scenarios she had run through in her head, Kirito offering his sleeping bag to her was not one of them.

"I'll be fine, I can make a fire and fall asleep next to it." Both Kirito and Asuna knew that the fire wouldn't last long, and also knew that Kirito didn't plan on being asleep long.

"It's fine, Kirito. I have my cloak; I'll be warmer than you without a sleeping bag than you will be without a sleeping bag." Asuna didn't want him to freeze to death, if that was a possibility in SAO.

"No, really. I've been here before, and I can cheat sleep when I need to. I'll just sleep it all back at the hotel room tomorrow." Kirito was insistent, and Asuna knew it; she dropped the subject.

Asuna was struggling to understand how someone could be so basely nice in this world of survival. _First he saves me from a pack of Snow Wolves, then he carries me to town, rents a hotel room for two, and wants nothing in return. Then he offers to help me out even more, and now he's throwing away his own comfort to make sure I'm the one comfortable._

Kirito and Asuna passed the large cavern where they had fought the first three Goblin Bandits, this time with moonlight shining in instead of sunlight; the sun had gone down. Passing through a few more turns in the cave, Kirito and Asuna finally came to the opening of the cave.

Kirito accessed his menu and materialized some items from his inventory. A black sleeping bag appeared in front of him, perfectly laid out on the flattest spot the system could find, and a bundle of sticks appeared in Kirito's hands. Stepping to the side of the sleeping bag, Kirito started setting up his fire a short distance away from the sleeping bag, enough that no embers would reach, but the heat still would.

Asuna sighed and opened up her menu, un-equipping her rapier before she slipped into the sleeping bag. _Wow. This bag is surprisingly warm._ Within seconds, she was involuntarily claimed by sleep.

With a sudden 'Fwoosh!' the sticks Kirito had placed caught fire. Unlike a real fire, it didn't need to be tended, and the sticks would burn for two hours before the fire would go out; the timer could be extended or renewed by placing more sticks on the fire. Kirito glanced at Asuna in the sleeping bag, who had already fallen asleep. Kirito wasn't surprised; he had read her body language earlier in the cave and knew that she was really tired. That was why he was so insistent on her using the sleeping bag.

Kirito sat near the fire, his onyx eyes reflecting the flickering flames of the fire. He glanced at Asuna again. _How did I get myself into this? I thought I was a sworn solo-player._ He chuckled at the thought. _Well that sure lasted._ He looked away from her peaceful, sleeping face and into the snow fields that were only a short distance away. He could see no Snow Wolves, but he knew they were there, waiting for the poor fool, or fools, who were traveling at night.

As he stared into the darkness of the night, he thought that the fire was remarkably warm. Already relaxed by the knowledge that no harm could befall them due to the 'Quest' wall, Kirito caught himself slipping into sleep. _You have to stay awake and keep the fire going,_ he tried to convince his subconscious that it was a bad idea to fall asleep. _Otherwise you'll wake up in the middle of the night, cold, and have to start the fire all over again._

But despite his own self-berating, Kirito's eyes dropped several more times, until they didn't open again. Leaning backwards against a cave wall with a small fire in front of him, Kirito had fallen asleep.

[Time Shift]

Asuna opened her eyes and realized that it was still dark; and completely dark too. She turned and looked at where Kirito was, and saw him leaning against a cave wall, shivering in the cold, but asleep. Sure enough, the fire had gone out. Asuna got out of the sleeping bag and started towards Kirito, intent on forcing him to use the sleeping bag, before she got an idea. Picking up the sleeping bag, she unzipped the front and walked over to Kirito. Sitting next to him and leaning on her own piece of the cave wall, Asuna placed the sleeping bag over the two of them like a blanket. Thankfully, Cardinal supported the use of a sleeping bag as a blanket, and it still gave warmth.

Kirito immediately stopped his shivering. Asuna, content with the result, leaned back against the cave wall and relaxed. She looked at Kirito's face, which was angled slightly towards her. Once again, it was peaceful and boyish, breathing in and out softly. "You don't have to be so tough all the time," she whispered under her breath, hoping her words would reach his subconscious. "I like you better when you're just plain nice." Closing her eyes, Asuna leaned her head against the wall of the cave as well, and fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 8: Beta

**Chapter 8: Beta**

Kirito opened his eyes as the virtual sun reached his face, a result of the sun rising over the mountaintops in the distance. Kirito went to stand up before quickly realizing that something was on top of him. _Is that…my sleeping bag?_ Kirito recognized the black, fluffed surface. _Wasn't Asuna…?_ Kirito then spotted Asuna, leaning against the cave wall next to him, fast asleep and sharing the false blanket. Kirito realized that the sleeping bag, despite being unzipped, was warm. _I guess the system recognized an unzipped sleeping bag as a blanket; I didn't think it would do that._

Kirito carefully lifted the sleeping bag off of himself and shifted it so it completely covered Asuna, who remained in a peaceful state of sleep. Using the boot on his right foot, Kirito stepped on the blackened sticks that hadn't burned all the way through and spread around the ashes of the fire, resulting in tiny blue rectangles and, ultimately, no sign that a fire had ever been there. He then sat down just before where the snow started, and stared out in the snow fields. Once again, he could see no Snow Wolves, but he knew they were there.

Ten minutes later, Asuna woke up. Opening her eyes slowly, she saw Kirito sitting with his back to her, staring across the fields. Kirito heard the noise of her waking up and removing the sleeping bag from on top of herself, but he didn't turn his head or say anything. Asuna walked over beside Kirito and sat down next to him, sharing the view he had. She scanned the snow for Snow Wolves, wondering where they could be hiding.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Kirito suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Asuna glanced at Kirito to see the expression on his face; he wore a carefree grin and looked straight ahead, his eyes taking in the details of the fields. She looked back at the snow fields, no longer looking for Snow Wolves. Her eyes caught the sloping hills and fresh snow, lying on top of the whole field like frosting on a cake. The sun glinted off of the snow, making it sparkle and look like a field of gems. "Wow!" Asuna's eyes widened as she noticed the beauty she had been blind to only seconds before. "It really is!"

The two looked across the fields for a little longer before Kirito eventually stood up, and walked back to where Asuna had left the sleeping bag. Asuna's eyes trailed his movements, watching with curiosity as he crouched down and tapped the air in front of the sleeping bag and added it back into his inventory. "Alright," he said, standing back up. "Let's go."

Well-rested and refreshed, Kirito and Asuna fought two more packs of Snow Wolves on their way back to town, which were considerably easier than the Snow Wolf packs they had fought before, due to their new addition of two Levels and five Attribute points.

As the two walked into the town, Asuna and Kirito both immediately noticed the sudden increase in the amount of people in the town. Kirito sighed. "I didn't expect so many people to get here so fast," he said. "There's at least 50 more people than yesterday."

"Well what did you expect? There's a path that leads right to it from The Town of Beginnings," Asuna stated incredulously. Surely he had expected something just like this?

"Well yeah," Kirito admitted. "But I thought people would be too busy scouring The Town of Beginnings for quests before deciding to go to the new town. I knew more people would be here of course, but there's another path to the west form The Town of Beginnings that's much easier and leads to another town."

Asuna recalled seeing the path as she left The Town of Beginnings; it had gone west, and was visible all the way to the edge of the field. From there, it took a turn behind a mountain and disappeared. The path she had taken however, west east, and clearly went in-between the two mountains, gaining elevation as it went.

"Asuna, why did you choose this path?" Kirito's question was genuinely inquisitive, having no idea why this path would appeal to someone.

"I could ask you the same thing," Asuna responded.

"Better quests and harder monsters," was Kirito's simple response.

Asuna, satisfied with his short answer, gave him hers. "Well, I choose this path because the other one looked easy, so I figured the reward probably wasn't as good as whatever was at the end of this path."

"That's probably what all these people thought too," Kirito realized. "Well, you weren't wrong. Speaking of which, let's go finish our 'Quest'."

Kirito led Asuna down the familiar stone brick street where he had lectured her about Attributed. The same cart-shops sat on the sides of the road, with the same NPCs running them. Still, everything caught Asuna's eye for the second time. Rushing from store to store, Asuna viewed everything with a fresh eye now that she had considerably more money to spend; about 4,000 Col. However, she had no idea what to buy, so she refrained from impulse shopping.

Asuna finally spotted the familiar NPC-run blacksmith shop that she had upgraded her rapier at, but Kirito guided her to a cloak store next door. Asuna immediately noticed that the NPC lady running the shop had an exclamation point above her head. "What's that for?" She asked Kirito, pointing to the symbol.

Kirito explained flawlessly, having fully expecting the question to come up. "It means that a 'Quest' has met all the requirements for being finished, and now we just need to talk to them and tell them it's done. If they have a question mark above their head, that means you already accepted their 'Quest', so now you can just talk to them again in case you forget the details of the 'Quest'. 'Quest'-givers are hard to find, because they only give you 'Quests' through dialogue, but once you accept the 'Quest', it's easy to find them again because of these symbols."

Turning and addressing the NPC, Kirito informed her that the Bandits had been wiped out. The NPC responded, "Thank you! Please take this as a token of my thanks!"

A notification popped up in Kirito's field of vision, which told him that an item was being presented to him as a 'Quest' reward. Clicking 'Accept', Kirito went into his menu and found the trade option, which could only be used on people within a few feet of you, and selected the 'Quest' reward. A notification appeared on Asuna's screen, showing her that 'Kirito' was giving her an item for free.

"You're letting me have it?" Asuna asked, shocked. The item was a cloak named Wind Rider, and according to its description, it gave a +3 Agility bonus. Asuna pressed 'Accept' and quickly swapped cloaks; her brown cloak faded into her inventory before a shiny red cloak materialized around her. Keeping the hood down, Asuna marveled at the feel of the cloak around her.

Kirito smiled his friendly smile. "Yeah, red's not really my color."

Asuna's eyes seemed to only get bigger. "Thank you so much!" She exclaimed, before she started marveling over the cloak more.

"Hey! Hey you at the cloak shop!" Both Asuna and Kirito turned to see who was hailing them, and saw a group of three men heading towards them. All three, Kirito noticed, had a sword sheathed at their side; they were all DPS players. The two on the left and right both had black hair that spiked at odd angles, and looked to be in their twenties. However, they were nothing compared to the man in the middle, who's brown hair looked like it was made up of spikes; he also looked to be in his twenties.

As the group of men approached them, Kirito could see that they were players because of the icons above their head, and that they seemed unhappy. "That cloak," the man with the spiky, brown hair pointed to the shiny, red cloak Asuna was wearing. Asuna grabbed her new cloak and pulled it closer to herself defensively. "That cloak was a 'Quest' reward. Right?" The man asked the question in an accusing tone, which Kirito found confusing.

"Yeah," Kirito responded, still trying to grasp the situation.

The brown haired man continued, his partners only scowling in the background. "Which means that you've been in this town for a while."

He left a gap after his accusation, waiting for one of them to confirm. Since Kirito was too confused trying to figure out the point of this man's accusations, Asuna answered. "We got to this town on the night of the first day, and accepted the 'Quest' the next morning. Why does it matter?"

The man's expression twisted into a smile of someone who had cornered their prey. "If you got into this town and found this 'Quest' so fast, then you must be…beta-testers." His last two words were filled with so much hate and resentment that Kirito again found himself speechless as he reassessed the situation. "So in that case," the man continued, his predator-like smile only widening, "hand over the cloak." He and his two comrades drew their swords, ready for a fight.

Kirito finished assessing the situation; they were bullies looking for a fight. Even if he got them to leave, they would just find someone else to bully, so he needed to do more than just get them to leave. Stepping in front of Asuna, Kirito began speaking. "She's not a beta-tester. I am. Do you have something against beta-testers helping other players?"

The man growled his response, not lowering his weapon, "Your girlfriend doesn't count. Now hand over the cloak."

Both Kirito and Asuna were caught off-guard by that comment. Asuna turned as red as her cloak before announcing, "He's not my boyfriend!" Her announcement overlapped Kirito's, whose face had also turned a brighter shade before saying "She's not my girlfriend!"

"Whatever. The cloak; hand it over. It isn't fair that you beta-testers got access to the best 'Quests' just because you know where to find them first." The man and his companions kept their swords raised, ready for a fight.

There was a pause of silence, before Kirito broke it with a cold laughter. It sent chills down Asuna's spine as she witnessed his sudden transformation into a personality she had not yet seen. She glanced at his eyes, which were now seemingly empty behind the onyx mirrors in the middle. His face had a dangerous smile on it, one Asuna hadn't seen before. To Asuna, Kirito looked to be in his late teens when he was calm and outside of battle, but somewhere in his early twenties when he was in battle. Now however, Asuna noticed that she couldn't place an age at all.

"So you guys still haven't figured out safe zones yet?" Kirito's voice was cold and demeaning. The three men faltered, suddenly aware that they were no longer talking to the same person. Asuna saw a glint of steel before the brown-haired man went flying backwards; Kirito stood with his sword drawn, occupying the space the man had previously been standing. The brown-haired man hit the opposite wall before getting back up, seething in rage, which quickly turned to confusion when he realized he was untouched. "That's right," Kirito smiled wickedly. "You can't take damage in a safe zone unless you're in an official duel, but I can still send you sprawling on the ground with the knockback effect."

Asuna watched the entire display with eyes filled with fear. _Who is he? This isn't my rescuer, and this definitely isn't the nice guy._

Kirito, ignoring the two rather frightened men moving away from him, turned to the brown-haired man and opened his menu. A notification appeared in front of the man, indicating that a player named 'Kirito' had challenged him to a duel.

"Choose whatever you want, I'll beat you with any of the options." Kirito turned his sword in his hand, waiting for the man to select an option.

The man looked back at the notification, which gave him four options of duel type: 'First-Strike', 'Yellow Health', 'Red Health', and 'Death'. The man knew he couldn't turn the duel down; this was a show of power. He glared at Kirito before he picked, and was met with a piercing stare combined with a malicious smile. The look was so unnerving that the man picked 'Red-Health'. A notification appeared in Kirito's vision, showing him the selected mode and asking to confirm the duel. Without hesitation, Kirito pressed 'Accept'.

A large timer than appeared in the air, counting down from 60. Above both Kirito and the man were their usernames, indicating them as the fighters. Kirito glanced at the man's username, "Kibaou," he said simply. He then looked Kibaou straight in the eye. "I'll remember that."

By the time the timer had reached 10 seconds, Asuna, and Kibaou's two companions had backed clear away from the two, giving them plenty of room to fight.

Kirito and Kibaou stood at opposite ends of the street, both of their backs turned to the walls behind them. They both stood ready to fight. The timer finally hit 0, and the battle began.

Kirito rushed Kibaou, swinging in a wide arc with Driving Slash. Kibaou moved his sword in time to deflect the swipe that would have sliced his body in half length-wise. Because the fight wasn't on the 'Death' mode, it was impossible for someone to die, so insta-kills, like being cut in half, wouldn't kill, but would result in an immediate win. Kibaou was forced to block another Driving Slash, this one aimed for his head, before he was able to swipe broadly horizontally to break Kirito's offensive.

Kirito jumped backwards to avoid the swipe, and upon landing, immediately rushed Kibaou again. Kirito saw Kibaou ready a sword skill, and by the positioning of his sword, which was over his head, Kirito could tell it was an offensive skill. Kirito prepared the sword skill Skyward Swipe and charged Kibaou. Once Kirito got in range, Kibaou released his sword skill and brought his sword crashing down, which is when Kirito activated his sword skill. Kibaou, who was Level 3, had put less Attribute points in 'Strength' as Kirito did, and had spread them between 'Strength', 'Endurance', and 'Agility'. So when his sword's downswing met Kirito's upswing, Kirito won; Kibaou was knocked off-balance and left wide open.

Activating Horizon Slash as soon as his blade had met Kibaou's, Kirito slashed at Kibaou's midsection, dealing significant damage before Kirito activated another sword skill, Driving Slash. Spinning once to redirect the momentum of the sword, Kirito slashed diagonally upwards, sending Kibaou flying backwards.

Kibaou landed rough, and upon glancing at his health bar, realized that he was already at 50% health; he was in the yellow. _Impossible!_ He thought. But before he could scramble back to his feet, Kirito was standing over him, his sword poised at Kibaou's head. "Two direct hits with only beginning armor to shield you. Surrender; you have no chance." Kirito spoke coldly.

Kibaou's sword arm was prone on the ground; he knew he wouldn't be able to deflect the sword pointed at his head. He had lost. "I surrender," Kibaou said defeated. Cardinal heard the confession, which unlike Kirito's, had used the word 'I' directly before 'Surrender'. Asking for a confirmation, Kibaou used his left hand, the non-sword arm, to press 'Accept'.

The duel winner icon appeared above Kirito, as well as a small banner above the area they had fought in, proclaiming Kirito to be the winner. Kirito sheathed his sword, but kept his eyes on Kibaou. Kibaou got to his feet and sheathed his sword as well. Grumbling to his two companions, who had rejoined his side, he turned and walked down the street the way he had come.

Kirito stood watching until they rounded a corner and disappeared out of sight, his face stony and emotionless. Asuna didn't watch the men, but watched his face instead; it was scaring her. She watched with concern the whole time, until the three men disappeared from view, which cause Kirito to, with a sigh, drop the expression on his face.

He looked at Asuna, who was surprised to see his face change so quickly. He was smiling apologetically, and his eyes were once again deep pools of onyx rather than stony mirrors of black. "Sorry," he said simply.

Asuna was confused, _Wait, why is he apologizing?_

"Sorry you had to see that," Kirito finished. "I don't like acting scary, but those guys were bullies. I wanted to scare them really bad so that they wouldn't bully anyone else." Kirito had been glancing at Asuna's face the whole time in his peripheral vision, and knew that her face had turned pale when he started the scary act.

Asuna, relieved that her 'Party' member wasn't suffering from a multiple-personality disorder, let color come back to her face. "I see," she said, staring into Kirito's eyes. "Even when you're scary, you're still doing it to be nice." Asuna smiled, and Kirito smiled back.


	10. Chapter 9: Food

**Chapter 9: Food**

Kirito devoured his third sandwich in four bites, while Asuna was only halfway through her second. "Wow," Asuna commented, watching Kirito start on his fourth. The sandwiches were of all different kinds, a result of Kirito telling the NPC shopkeeper: "One of everything!" when they had stopped by the sandwich store. Asuna was currently eating a classic ham sandwich, while Kirito was starting on a sandwich filled with peppers.

"I don't understand how you're not hungry; we haven't eaten since yesterday morning." Kirito took a break from eating for a full ten seconds to speak before resuming.

"I am hungry," Asuna replied. "I just prefer to not risk a choking-hazard by inhaling my food. Wait, is that possible?" Her last question was more inquisitive than worried, being convinced at this point that Kirito was a human vacuum.

"Dunno," was the reply.

Walking back to their hotel room, sandwich basket in hand, Asuna spotted a NPC store selling fruit, and was suddenly reminded of something she meant to do. "Kirito, let's go shopping!" Asuna looked at Kirito excitedly, but Kirito met her look with confusion.

"Shopping? What for? We'll need a player-smith to upgrade our weapons further, there are no armor shops in this town, and we have enough potions already; it's not like we have to use them often."

Asuna laughed when she realized Kirito was being completely serious. "Is that all you ever think about? Let's buy some ingredients for food!"

Kirito was only more confused. "But we just ate sandwiches, and we have more right there," he pointed to the sandwich basket he was holding. "Why do we need to eat again?"

"You can't just eat out forever you know," Asuna looked at Kirito as if she had told him something rather obvious. "So let's buy some ingredients, and have some food to make on our own!"

Kirito looked at Asuna gain, who looked excited. "Alright, whatever. Let's go shopping, I guess." Kirito let out a defeated sigh.

Asuna took off faster than Kirito could follow; she still had the +3 Agility bonus, and Kirito was carrying a sandwich basket that gave him a movement speed penalty. Kirito soon stopped trying to race after her, and instead kept a list in his head of all the things she bought before they disappeared into her inventory. Bread, sliced meat (turkey, ham, and something he didn't know), cheese (three different kinds that he couldn't tell the difference between), sauces (a lot of different sauced), tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, and, finding a utility shop, some knives. _Sandwiches,_ Kirito realized.

Asuna returned to Kirito, who was standing in the middle of the street. "I did some reading a while ago, and learned that making sandwiches raises the 'Cooking' skill, and there's no luck or skill requirement," Asuna explained. "It's perfect to raise 'Cooking'!"

"I'm not really interested in 'Cooking', so I'll leave all the sandwich-making to you," Kirito proclaimed.

Asuna laughed. "So you're going to leave me to be the chef then?"

Kirito smiled playfully. "Sounds good!"

[Time Break]

Kirito was fast asleep on his hotel bed. When the two had returned to their hotel room, Asuna had claimed the entirety of the table to practice making a sandwich, "Just to see what the cooking engine in SAO is like," she had said. Kirito had insisted on testing the blankets on his bed, "Just to see what the comfort engine in SAO is like," he had said.

So while Asuna made sandwiches, she studied the napping figure of Kirito. She saw his gently face breathe in and out slowly, and his chest rise and fall accordingly. His hair was just the same as ever, but Asuna knew that the system had put hair in a manipulated variable condition, meaning it could be changed. _His hair must be pretty stubborn,_ she decided.

Asuna had cleared the table, and was now scrolling through her inventory in search of one particular item: 'Bread'. Eventually, Asuna found the 'Bread' and tapped on it, causing a large loaf of bread to materialize on the table in front of Asuna. Scrolling further, she found 'Knife' and tapped on that, causing a knife to materialize in her hand. She tapped the bread with the knife and was surprised when the loaf of bread transformed into evenly cut pieces of bread, with a cut lengthwise first; perfect for a sandwich.

Taking two pieces of the bread, Asuna put them to the side, intending to make her sandwich with these pieces. A small '+' appeared above the slices of bread, which Asuna tapped. Doing so opened up Asuna's inventory, showing all the ingredients that she had in her inventory. Tapping on all the ingredients she wanted, Asuna made her sandwich. She put the rest of the ingredients into a small fridge that the hotel room came with next to the table, and the bread in the cupboard.

Kirito started to stir. First rolling over until he was on his back, Kirito slowly say up and started stretching his arms and yawning. Asuna watched for ten seconds before his yawn ended and he opened his eyes. "Have a nice nap?" She asked teasingly.

A groggy but cheerful response was heard in reply, "The comfort engine is pretty good." Kirito slid out of bed and spotted the sandwich Asuna had made, mistaking it for one of the store-bought ones. "I thought you were going to make your own sandwich."

Asuna gestured to the sandwich in front of her, confused. "I did."

Kirito squinted at the sandwich. "Wait… so that's _not_ one of the sandwiches we bought?" Kirito was confused and still a little sleepy.

"Nope," Asuna replied cheerily, happy that her sandwich had apparently turned out all right visually. _Now for the taste test,_ she thought. She picked up the sandwich and bit into it, before hastily putting it back on the table and rushing to the sink, turning it on and holding her mouth open below the running water.

Kirito laughed at the sudden development. "That's all right," he consoled. "I probably couldn't make a decent sandwich if I tried."

Asuna, after turned the sink off, felt able to speak again. "No it's not that its bad… I think." Asuna's face was red and she looked exhausted. "I think I put too much hot sauce in; I wanted it to have some kick. You can try it if you like and let me know if it's good or not." She turned the sink back on and resumed soothing her tongue.

Kirito examined the sandwich and its ingredients carefully, before deciding that the sandwich looked sound. Lifting up the sandwich and taking a bite, Asuna turned the sink off and watched, anxious of his verdict. Kirito chewed on the sandwich slowly, apparently unaffected by the hot sauce. "It's…" he paused, pondering his next word. "Amazing!" With that comment Kirito dug into the sandwich, devouring the rest of it in a mere three bites.

Asuna was astonished; she had definitely put too much hot sauce in. Her voice was soft and unsure when she asked: "Really?"

Kirito looked her in the eyes, a serious look on his face, and said: "That was easily the best sandwich I've ever had. And there was just the right amount of hot sauce." Asuna's face broke into a smile and her eyes lit up; her sandwich was a success. "You should make more of those," Kirito said.

Asuna blushed and hid her face in response, but Kirito hadn't noticed, he was busy looking for a clock in the hotel room. "Hey, how long was I asleep for?" Kirito asked, unable to find a clock. He walked over to the one window at the end of the room, trying to identify the time of day.

"I don't know, maybe… 10 minutes? It was really short." Asuna thought that was about right.

"Hm." The thoughtful response came from Kirito as he continued to stare out of the window. Asuna looked at him quizzically. Still staring out of the window, he finally responded with real words. "Do you want to find a 'Quest'?"

Asuna stared at him as if he had gone crazy, which Kirito noticed in her voice instead, as he wasn't looking at her. "What?! We just got back from a 'Quest" after spending the night outside a cave, and then you got into a fight with someone, and now that we've just gotten back, you want to leave on another 'Quest'?!"

"No, it's nothing like that!" Kirito quickly reassured. He had turned away from the window in order to explain to Asuna directly. "Some 'Quests' are infinite, and can keep being done as long as it's by different players, but most of the 'Quests' are only available once. Once a one-time 'Quest' has been accepted, no one else can accept it. The 'Quests' will never run out, since the system can keep making new ones on its own, but it takes a while. Now that people are arriving in this town, maybe we should go accept a 'Quest' or two before they're all taken."

"So we won't actually do them yet?" Asuna clarified, sounding slightly dangerous.

"No," Kirito affirmed. "But we will have to do them soon, probably tomorrow. In order to keep it fair, one-time 'Quests' have a time-limit on them that ensures that you don't just go around accepting a ton of 'Quests' and then trying to get them all done whenever you want to. The time limit depends on the 'Quest', but accepting three or four at once is about the max before it gets hard to do them all in time."

"So we'll go accept some 'Quests', come back here, sleep, and then do them tomorrow, right? I need to be sure I'm sleeping in this hotel room tonight." Asuna's voice was serious and dangerous; she was getting her sleep in a real bed tonight.

"Yes," Kirito affirmed again. "That is exactly the plan."


	11. Chapter 10: Quests

**Chapter 10: Quests**

Kirito and Asuna walked down the familiar stone brick street that already housed some rather memorable moment sin the two occasions Kirito and Asuna had been on it. Walking past the NPC blacksmith, it occurred to Asuna that she had no idea how to find 'Quests'.

"Kirito, how _do_ you find 'Quests'?" Asuna asked as they walked.

Kirito turned onto a side-street with Asuna following closely behind. "You just talk to NPC's. There's nothing to indicate that they might have a 'Quest'. Sometimes they're shopkeepers, sometimes they're bar-tenders, and I've even gotten a few 'Quests' by talking to old NPC's on rocking chairs in front of houses. A 'Quest'-giver could be any NPC; you have to find out by talking to them."

Kirito turned another corner, leading Asuna to a larger street, this one empty of all NPC shops. Looking at the buildings beside them, Asuna realized that they were apartment buildings. Kirito continued speaking, "But of course, they don't even recognize the word 'Quest', so you have to just have a conversation with them and see if they want anything. If they do, a notification will pop up, asking if you want the 'Quest'."

Asuna smiled. "So all I have to do is talk to people? She confirmed; that sounded nice.

"Specifically, people without cursors above their head. So technically not people," Kirito responded. He took another turn towards what seemed to be a noisy area, and Asuna followed behind.

Kirito and Asuna both stopped at the view in front of them; Asuna to admire the view, and Kirito because he knew Asuna was admiring the view. It was the center of the city, and it had a large circle shape to it, completely free of buildings. In the middle was a huge fountain that spay water from dozens of spouts on every side, which created intricate crossing patterns of water before it landed in the pool below. Lining the pool was a stone bench that stretched all the way around the fountain. A large stone brick street wound its way around the fountain, and branched off to four different streets in each of the four cardinal directions; Kirito and Asuna currently stood at the south entrance to the city center. The outside of the street was lined with NPC shops, sporting every imaginable and, in Kirito's opinion, useless item, and some useful ones.

The most stunning part of the city center however, was the mass of people. As Asuna scanned the heads of the people, she realized that there must be at least 100 NPCs wandering around, talking to each other and doing fake business, as well as a few real players with cursors above their heads, talking to NPCs and doing real business.

"Alright," Kirito announced. "Let's split up and find some 'Quests'! Remember, anyone could be a "Quest'-giver, and often you can hear an NPC telling another NPC about their troubles. If it sounds like something 'Quest' worthy, talk to them. And remember, we shouldn't accept too many 'Quests', so just try to find one and we'll meet at the fountain." Kirito smiled and walked off, quickly disappearing into the crowd of NPCs and leaving only the cursor above his head visible.

Asuna watched as he disappeared, and then walked off in the opposite direction. She passed by quite a few NPCs and eavesdropped lightly on their conversations. Hearing nothing interesting, she walked around some more, eventually finding a man and a woman in an argument. After quickly checking for cursors, she decided them both to be NPCs and listened to their conversation from a respectable distance.

"I'm telling you, Lucy, it wasn't my fault!" The male-NPC seemed adamant as he addressed the female-NPC, apparently named Lucy. _Wait a second,_ Asuna thought. _Why is her name in English?_

 **AN: It's because I wanted the NPCs to have names they could be referred to and spoken to by, since they are meant to imitate real people, who often use each other's names, and I'm too lazy to look up common Japanese names and use them in my story. I'll only do this to the NPCs, and justify it by claiming Akihiko had a strange fascination with English culture, which I'm pretty sure he didn't. Overall though, it should help the reader differentiate between NPC and person, and therefore, non-important and important; you're welcome.**

Lucy responded, equally as adamant. "Well then Kevin, who's fault is it? I told you to get the package here safely, and it's not here!"

Kevin had his excuse at the ready: "I got ambushed by a pack of six Snow Wolves on the way here! If you had hired some mercenaries to accompany me like I suggested, I wouldn't have had to drop the package and run!"

Lucy clearly didn't believe him. "Snow Wolves never group in six, Kevin." She rolled her eyes at what she believed to be a ridiculous and poorly thought-out lie. Asuna quickly glanced again to make sure the two were still NPCs. _Yep,_ she confirmed. _I guess the system doesn't have an issue casually revealing monster patterns._ Lucy continued, "Besides, I already told you. I don't have the money to hire any mercenaries yet; that package had the stuff I was going to sell to make money in the first place."

Kevin ignored her second comment and continued. "I know you think I'm lying, Lucy, but I swear there were six Snow Wolves, all working together!"

Asuna decided that this was definitely a 'Quest', and started to move towards the two NPCs. "Hello!" She called as she approached them. Lucy and Kevin stopped arguing and turned to face their new arrival. "I couldn't help but overhear what you were saying," Asuna continued, "and I want to help!"

Lucy looked both relieved and grateful. "You would?" She asked, just to be sure.

"Yep!" Asuna responded, smiling widely.

Kevin however, looked worried. "That's really nice of you miss, but I'm warning you, there really is a pack of six Snow Wolves out there, and I'm not willing to face them again; they were different from the other Snow Wolves somehow. I don't think you can do it on your own." Kevin sounded genuinely worried for the kind Samaritan, but Asuna was undeterred.

"Oh it's fine, I have some friends I can call on." Already convinced of Kirito's invulnerability, Asuna carried not the slightest bit of worry.

Kevin looked skeptical, but continued the dialogue anyways. "Alright, well if you want, the Snow Wolves ambushed me at a large rock, halfway between the town and the mountains to the north; there's only one rock in sight because of the snow, and it's that one. The package was a large wooden trunk, so there's no way the Snow Wolves chewed through it, but you can't move fast when you're carrying it, so you have to fight the Snow Wolves off first. You still sure about this?"

A notification appeared in Asuna's vision, informing her that she could accept a 'Quest'. Pressing 'Accept', Asuna reassured the two that she would succeed. "I'll be back here with the package soon!" She declared.

Kevin looked worried, but Lucy looked overjoyed. "Good luck! And thank you!" She yelled as Asuna walked away and rejoined the large crowd of NPCs walking around the fountain.

A 'ping' sounded in Kirito's menu, alerting him of a change. Glancing at his menu, Kirito saw that his 'Party' had accepted a 'Quest', called 'Package Retrieval'. _So she already found a 'Quest' huh? Guess I should hurry up and find one myself._

Kirito weaved his way through the crowd of NPCs, keeping his eyes and ears open as he tried to locate a 'Quest'-giver. He had already talked to two other NPCs that had seemed promising, but he was still 'Quest'-less. Deciding to sit down and assess from there, Kirito found his way to a wooden bench near the NPC shops and sat down, still scanning the crowd of NPCs.

Suddenly, a little girl, a little NPC girl that is, broke away from the crowd and approached Kirito as he sat on the bench. "Excuse me mister," she addressed Kirito, officially earning his undivided attention; an NPC approaching the player was rare. "You're a swordsman right?" The girl looked no more than eight years old as she looked at the sword sheathed on Kirito's back.

Kirito, intrigued, answered the NPC girl plainly. "Yeah, I'm a swordsman. My name's Kirito, what's yours?"

The girl responded shyly, "Elizabeth."

"That's a nice name," Kirito complemented. "What do you need, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth's face contorted into worry and sadness, and her eyes started to tear up. "My grandpa left the town to visit the mountains three days ago, and he hasn't come back yet. He brought a lot of food and he's good at martial arts, but he said the trip would only take a day. Can you find him and bring him back please? What if he's hurt?" Tears started to flow form Elizabeth's eyes.

"Of course I can," Kirito quickly reassured. "Which mountains did he go to?" Kirito was already leaning forward so that he was eye-level with Elizabeth.

Elizabeth wiped the tears away from her eyes before looking back into Kirito's. "He went east. There's a path that leads to the mountains; Grandpa told me."

A 'Quest' notification appeared in front of Kirito. "Don't worry Elizabeth," Kirito confidently said. "I'll bring him back safely." Then Kirito pressed 'Accept'.

[Time Shift]

Kirito found Asuna waiting on the other end of the fountain, with an amused grin on her face. "What is this 'Quest' you accepted?" Asuna asked, holding back laughter. "'Find Grandpa!'? Is this some sort of elderly hide-and-seek game?"

Kirito grinned back before he answered, "Yep, I hear he's hiding up in the mountains to the east of the town. Are we running a delivery service for your 'Quest'?"

Asuna laughed, she hadn't expected him to play along. "Of course, except they dropped the package in the wrong place, so now we have to go get it from the middle of the snow fields to the north of town."

Kirito's grin grew even wider. "I hate it when that happens," he responded. "That's why you need same-day delivery. So who's 'Quest' are we going to do first?"

Asuna thought about it before responding. "Well… since I found mine first, let's do mine." She grinned.

Kirito grinned back. "Alright, fair enough." He glanced at the sky, which was starting to get dark. "Let's go back to the hotel now; I might get lost and I'd rather wander around while it's still light.

[Time Shift]

Asuna discovered that Kirito was not kidding; they got lost. By the time they had found a street they recognized, the sun was starting to set and Asuna had just about lost faith in Kirito's sense of direction. "I told you, I didn't spend a lot of time in this town," Kirito had said to justify his getting lost. "That's why I only knew about the one 'Quest' with the Wind Rider as the reward; I did that 'Quest' and then left for the next town during the beta-test."

Asuna, upon seeing their hotel, immediately perked up and urged Kirito to hurry up, to which he happily obliged; he was just as excited to sleep.

As the door to their hotel room opened, Asuna rushed in ahead of Kirito and jumped on her bed, face-planting onto the bed and letting out a muffled sound of content. Kirito wholly agreed with Asuna's exhaustion, and approached his own bed. After un-equipping his sword, Kirito also face-planted in his bed.

Both Kirito and Asuna had gotten underneath the blankets and now seemingly sunk into their beds, lost in the warmth and comfort of the blankets. Asuna rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling, not quite asleep yet. She glanced at Kirito, who had his back towards her. "Kirito, are you already asleep?" She watched the lump of blankets topped with black hair, but it didn't respond. "Wow. We haven't even turned off the light yet." She reached over to the lamp between the two beds and tapped the air in front of it, and then the small button that appeared in front of it, causing the lights to turn off.

She again glanced at Kirito, with the new knowledge that he was asleep. "You're really a nice person," she whispered. "I don't understand why you don't have any friends from the beta or real life." With that, she turned her back to him as well, and quickly fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 11: Team

**Chapter 11:** **Team**

Asuna watched as Kirito started to wake up. In front of her were four sandwiches she had made while waiting for Kirito to wake up, all laid out on the table in front of her. At first, the sandwiches were made just for breakfast, but as time went by and Kirito still didn't wake up, she made a pair for lunch as well. She had made two of them extra-spicy; Kirito's. Kirito sat up in his bed, but wasn't done waking up yet. After a nine-second yawn, his eyes finally opened.

"Good morning, Asuna," was his groggy greeting after realizing that Asuna was awake.

Asuna replied cheerily, showing off the fact that she was fully awake, "Good morning, Kirito!" Asuna realized that a second yawn was approaching, so she declared: "I made sandwiches!"

Kirito's yawn was stifled before it even began, and in a flash he was beside the table, fully awake. "Are any for me?" He asked excitedly. Asuna laughed and pointed to one of the spicy sandwiches, which Kirito picked up and started devouring.

"There's another one for you, but it's for lunch," Asuna said, placing two of the sandwiches in her inventory and picking up her own sandwich. It took twice as long for Asuna to finish her sandwich than it took for Kirito to finish his, but Kiritio was awake now.

"Alright!" He declared, stretching briefly before equipping his sword. "I'm ready now; that sandwich was great!"

Asuna blushed as she finished her own sandwich. "Thanks," she sheepishly replied. "I'm bringing four more sandwiches, two of which I made." Kirito looked excited at the news, to which Asuna responded with an even deeper blush. "Anyways, let's go. I brought sandwiches enough just in case we end up coming back late at night, but I want to avoid spending the night anywhere but in a bed; let's get an early start."

Kirito, obliging Asuna, had left quickly and took the quickest route he knew to the north gate of town. Judging by the sun and the temperature, Kirito reasoned that it was morning, but not that early; probably around 8:00 or 9:00 AM. As they walked, Kirito gathered information on the 'Quest' from Asuna. "So the package we have to retrieve and deliver is to the north of town right?"

"Yep," Asuna confirmed. "I was told it was dropped next to a large rock in the middle of the fields."

"Oh! That rock." Kirito was surprised at this new piece of information. "There's a really big rock that you can see from the north gate, and it's the only thing that isn't white, so it sticks out. In the beta, I saw it as I left the town, but I never knew that it was part of a 'Quest'."

Asuna, unable to confirm this information, decided to carry along with her explanation of the 'Quest'. "One of the two NPCs that gave me the 'Quest' claimed he was ambushed by a Snow Wolf pack of six, and that's why he had to drop the package. They also said the package was really heavy, so we won't be able to just grab it and run."

Kirito frowned. "Hm. So basically we have to fight a Snow Wolf pack."

Asuna noticed his frown. "What's wrong?"

"Well, there's a reason that Snow Wolves are limited in their pack size and are relatively easy to deal with. Unlike a regular monster, they don't hit you once and send you flying, or have to ready their weapon to strike again; if a Snow Wolf hits you, it stays on you until you get it off. Even worse, if you fall or the Snow Wolf seriously injures your leg, all the other Snow Wolves jump on you and overwhelm you." Kirito explained the scary bit first. "But that's why they have so little health and an easily discernable pattern; an extra Snow Wolf won't affect anything." Asuna listened on, aware of a 'but' coming and worried that she had accepted a 'Quest' that was too hard for just the two of them. "But the Snow Wolves in this /Quest' are probably harder than the others…" Kirito's last comment disheartened Asuna; they would find a different 'Quest'.

"… which is why we'll work as a team," Kirito finished. Asuna perked up, surprised. _We're still going to do it? He just spent a full minute explaining why it sounds too difficult!_

"We'll work back to back, and instead of us both taking on three Snow Wolves individually, the two of us will take on six Snow Wolves together." Kirito smiled at Asuna and gave her a thumbs-up. "No problem!"

Asuna smiled back, and her nervousness evaporated; if Kirito thought it was possible, they could do it. Asuna, realizing that was pretty much all she knew about the 'Quest', glanced around the street they were currently on. It was much like all the streets, with its stone brick roads and the side streets that interconnected all of the roads in the city, but this street contained very few NPC shops. One NPC shop caught Asuna's eyes, and once she was sure about its contents, she rushed ahead of Kirito to go to the shop.

Kirito, after catching back up to her, was confused. "What is it?" He asked, Asuna turned around and proudly displayed a white sleeping bag, before tapping on it and sending it back into her inventory. "I bought a sleeping bag," she stated.

Kirito smile had a hint of pride, before he pointed to a side street next to the NPC shop. "That street should deposit us right in front of the north gate," he said. "Are we ready? Anything else we need?" The question was long overdue, but the question was always asked right before a journey started. Asuna nodded. "We're ready," she stated.

[Time Shift]

The sun above them and the snow below them, Kirito and Asuna reached the top of a snowy incline. After losing sight of the rock that had been visible the moment they stepped out of the north gate, the two now saw the rock clearly in front of them; no more hills were in their way. Their trip had been surprisingly eventless; a bizarre stroke of chance had kept the Snow Wolves away from Kirito and Asuna, resulting in a rather boring trip. "Kirito, look." Asuna pointed to the base of the large rock ahead, where a large wooden chest lay abandoned, but still sealed shut.

Kirito saw the chest, and reached his conclusion. "The Snow Wolves are probably hiding out, and the chest is probably impossible to move until after we defeat them." He paused before he started to walk towards the rock. "So let's go spring the trap!" He sounded oddly cheery about the idea of being caught in the middle of a trap.

Kirito and Asuna were still about an eighth of a mile away from the rock when a healthbar suddenly appeared. The healthbar appeared to come from somewhere behind the rock, outside of their vision, and read The Pack. The healthbar was rather small, and Kirito knew it to be less than the maximum a healthbar could reach. From the beta-test, he had learned that all mini-bosses and bosses had this kind of healthbar, and at maximum the healthbar could hold 1000 health before a second healthbar was needed; this one looked to hold less than half of that. Unknown to Kirito, the healthbar represented 360 health. The large healthbar suddenly disappeared, replaced by six smaller healthbars that read Pack Wolf. The six split up, three on either side, and approached the edges of the rock. That was when Kirito and Asuna saw the Pack Wolves emerge from either side of the rock, and saw them start to spread out.

"Asuna," Kirito's voice was serious now. "Stick close to me; being surrounded is the worst thing we can allow to happen, so stick close and we're going to charge them. As long as we remain on the outside of The Pack and do damage to them without allowing them to surround us, this should be risk-free. All we have to do is keep charging them and break outside of their circle, and every time they go to form a new one, we break outside of that circle too by charging them again."

Asuna thought the plan was sound, because they both had good 'Agility' stats.

"Ready?" Kirito glanced at Asuna, who had her hand drawn her rapier. His sword was also drawn and in his hand, ready for action. "They won't be expecting us to charge them the first time, so it should be easy. From there, we can use the rock a little bit to make circle-forming harder for them, but our strategy will remain the same."

Asuna looked at Kirito and nodded. "Let's go!" She said.

Kirito nodded back to signal that he was ready before turning his head back to the Pack Wolves, who had now formed a large semicircle around them, and were still spreading out. With a sudden burst of speed, Kirito took off, leaving a trail of snow-dust behind him. Asuna, with her +3 'Agility' cloak, quickly caught up with Kirito, and then paced beside him. The Pack Wolves were surprised by their sudden movement, just as Kirito had predicted, but they moved quickly to close the circle, making the circle smaller as Kirito and Asuna moved closer to the outer edge.

As Kirito and Asuna neared the Pack Wolf they were charging, they readied their sword skills. Kirito saw the determined and fierce look in the Pack Wolf's eyes; it was going to hold its ground and attack so that the circle could be finished. The Pack Wolf got in attack positon, ready to lunge at its first attacker.

At the same instant the Pack Wolf lunged, Kirito unleashed his sword skill, and with unspoked synchronization, the two flawlessly neutralized the Pack Wolf Kirito's sword skill, Driving Slash, caught the Pack Wolf by his snout, and sent his lunge off-course, and to the side of Kirito. Asuna, who now had a clear shot at the Pack Wolf flying past her, unleashed Twin Sting, nailing the Pack Wolf once in the head with a strong jab, and once in the side before it fell to the ground.

By the time the Pack Wolf had stumbled to his feet, Kirito and Asuna were far out of reach, having left the Pack Wolf down to avoid being surrounded by the pack. Kirito had been right; the large rock proved to make circling Kirito and Asuna much more difficult for The Pack. While the Pack Wolves were moving to surround them again, the rock slowed their progress considerably, giving Kirito and Asuna time to think about their next move.

Kirito glanced at the Pack Wolf they had charged; it was at about half health. Kirito quickly did the math in his head, and reached the conclusion that the Pack Wolf should have about 60 or 70 health if it was only at half health after that onslaught; it was going to be a long fight.

Using the rock to slow The Pack down, Kirito and Asuna always charged the first Pack Wolf to emerge from the other side of the rock, to ensure the rock would always slow The Pack down. The fight continued with Kirito and Asuna charging and attacking a Pack Wolf briefly before emerging on the outside of the circle and forcing the Pack Wolves to attempt to reform their circle. The Pack, following standard mini-boss and boss rules, didn't change its attack pattern until after it reached the yellow or red healthbar; which happened with the death of one of The Pack Wolves. The mini-boss, with 360 health, required that 144 of its health be depleted before it reached yellow. Three of the Pack Wolves had about half-health left, and one of the Pack Wolves was dead; enough for yellow.

Before Kirito realized what had happened, there was a Pack Wolf on top of the rock. Kirito had been watching for the Pack Wolf to emerge from one of the sides of the rock, so that they could charge it and once again foil the attempts of The Pack to form a circle, so he hadn't noticed the Pack Wolf on top of the rock. Kirito was confused, and Asuna sensed that something was wrong. Glancing around, she spotted the Pack Wolf on the rock and pointed it out to Kirito, who immediately realized that the mini-boss must have reached yellow health.

Kirito quickly glanced around to the rest of The Pack and had a terrible realization. The Pack Wolf on the top of the rock had the classic wolfish grin before he howled in triumph; The Pack had finished their circle.

"Asuna, this is kind of bad, but we still got this." Kirito assessed the situation quickly as two of the Pack Wolves broke formation and charged Kirito and Asuna. "We accidently cornered ourselves in our attempt to out-maneuver them. The rock behind us means that no one can charge us from behind, but also that we can only run sideways or towards the Pack Wolves."

The Pack Wolves approached the two and pounced, both aiming for Asuna. Kirito brought one down with a powerful Falling Slash and kicked it, sending it running off, its health now in the red. Asuna dodged the other Pack Wolf, slicing it simply with Slash before it ran off, following the attack pattern The Pack had now established. As the two rejoined the circle, two more fresh Pack Wolves charged the two.

"So what's the plan?" Asuna asked, readying a sword skill to deal some damage to their next attackers.

Kirito also readied a sword skill for their next attackers before responding, "We only attack the Pack Wolves already in the yellow health." Asuna was confused, but Kirito kept explaining. "The attack pattern changed because the mini-boss reached yellow health. It will change again at red health. If we keep the two healthy Pack Wolves in the green and kill all the other ones, we'll be able to keep the attack pattern the same until there are only two Pack Wolves left, making it much easier for when they change the pattern again."

The Pack Wolves got within range and lunged at Kirito this time. Quickly glancing at their healthbars, Kirito dodged the first Pack Wolf and smashed the jaw of the second Pack Wolf with Hilt Smash, sending it crashing to the ground next to Kirito and Asuna. Asuna quickly barraged the head of the fallen Pack Wolf with Piercing Rain, finishing off the previously yellow health Pack Wolf. The second Pack Wolf, with the perfect health, had already rejoined the circle; his attack dodged and therefore foiled.

Kirito saw another Pack Wolf begin the charge, his health perfect, so decidedly he would hit the other one hard. _Wait, why is only one charging?_ It was then that Kirito realized what he had overlooked slightly. Kirito spun around in time to see the Pack Wolf land on the ground just a few paces from Asuna, having jumped from the rock. Asuna heard the Pack Wolf land and spun around, startled that the Pack Wolf could have gotten so close so fast, but it was too late. The Pack Wolf reached Asuna's legs before she could ready a sword skill and bit down, knocking Asuna to the ground.

The Pack Wolf immediately took off with Asuna being dragged behind. Asuna swung her rapier helplessly, unable to reach the Pack Wolf as it dragged her closer to his comrade that was still charging. Before the other Pack Wolf was in range however, Kirito was there. With a quick Driving Slash to the neck of the Pack Wolf, the Pack Wolf's mouth opened in pain, freeing Asuna's leg. Now that Asuna's leg was clear, Kirito activated Public Execution, a sword skill that was rarely ever used because of the rather specific and limited scenarios it was actually useful in. Kirito drove his sword straight down through the Pack Wolf's head and through the other side, killing it almost immediately through the initial damage plus tick damage.

Asuna remained on the ground, her leg too injured to support her; Cardinal was rather good with simulating injuries. Turning to face the other Pack Wolf that was charging, Kirito readied a defensive sword skill, which didn't often work well against Wolves. The Pack Wolf charged Asuna, aware that easy prey was right in front of it. Before he could reach her rather vulnerable leg however, Kirito stopped the Pack Wolf's charge dead with the sword skill Standstill. Normally used in sword fights, Standstill was activated when the swords collided, and brought them to a grinding standstill, in which the player with the higher 'Strength' won, and sent the opponent off-balance and vulnerable. Instead of a sword, the sword skill had brought the Pack Wolf's head to a standstill against the sword, and was quickly sent off-balance and then kicked away by Kirito.

Kirito reached down and helped Asuna to her feet, but she stood unsteadily. "Kirito, I don't think I can move around much or maneuver at all." Asuna said, worried. Kirito glanced at her healthbar, underneath his own in his vision, which was at about 50%; the tick damage had done a lot. "Alright, then we stand our ground here. If we kill two more Pack Wolves and injure one of the healthy ones, the health will change to red and then the attack pattern changes again, but we can easily deal with any attack pattern two Pack Wolves come up with."

Asuna nodded uncertainly. "Right," she said. She turned to face the Pack Wolf that was charging her; it's health was almost perfect. Kirito placed his back against hers, and she leaned on him almost immediately, allowing her to put more strength in her arms to fight the Pack Wolf. Kirito's Pack Wolf was in the yellow, so Kirito readied an offensive sword skill. Asuna's Pack Wolf arrived first, and Asuna activated Sting to stop the Pack Wolf mid charge. Connecting with the head of the Pack Wolf, it stopped, and was quickly met with a Slash from Asuna that sent it running back to the circle. Kirito's Pack Wolf had not fared nearly as well. Now that maneuvering was no longer an option, Kirito put on the gamble that he wouldn't miss. Activating a simple sword skill that everyone had, Kirito stabbed into the skull of the Pack Wolf with Plunge. Only a few ticks of damage went before it died; 'Precision' came in handy.

With the few seconds before the next two Snow Wolves charged them, Asuna quickly downed a potion from her inventory, and her health started to go back up slowly. Assessing her opponent quickly, she saw that it was in the yellow health. Using the same strategy, she stopped the charge of the Pack Wolf with a Sting to the face, but this time it was followed up by Blade Flurry, which connected several times to the head; the Pack Wolf ran back to the circle in red health. Kirito's opponent was the healthy Pack Wolf, so he slashed it simply with Driving Slash, sending it running back to the circle, unsuccessful.

"Kirito!" Asuna suddenly found that she could put weight on her leg again; the potion was working. Kirito realize that Asuna was no longer leaning on him and glanced at her slowly increasing healthbar. He nodded in response, and turned his attention back to the new Pack Wolf that was charging. Asuna's Pack Wolf was healthy, so she dodged it simply and sent it back to the circle with a simple Sting to the side. Kirito's opponent was in the yellow, and arrived after Asuna's opponent. With the room to work with and knowledge that Asuna was available, Kirito dodged it's lunge and activated Falling Slash, sending it tumbling to the ground near Asuna's feet, where she quickly finished it off with a Twin Sting to the head.

With only three Pack Wolves left, only one Pack Wolf charged this time, and it was the one in the red health; he lasted about three seconds.

The mini-boss hit red health, but Kirito's strategy was sound. The final attack pattern was an all-out charge, but with only two Pack Wolves left, instead of the expected three or possible five, it turned into a simple two versus two, which Kirito and Asuna easily won by taking the Pack Wolves one at a time.

As the final Pack Wolf disappeared into blue rectangles, the Victory! screen appeared, as well as a Level Up! screen for the both of them. As Kirito put his points in points in 'Strength' and 'Agility', he heard a soft 'thump' behind him, and immediately experienced déjà vu.

Kirito spun around and saw Asuna lying in the snow, panting. "My leg…" she panted out. "I was running off of adrenaline," she explained. "It's not really better yet."


	13. Chapter 12: Promise

**Chapter 12: Promise**

Asuna found that she could put no weight on her leg, her right one specifically, and could not stand up. Kirito went and collected the wooden chest beside the rock, which now easily disappeared into his inventory now that The Pack was dead. When Kirito returned, Asuna was drinking another potion to heal further. "I still can't put any weight on it," she explained.

Which is why Kirito was now carrying Asuna through the snow fields, bridal style; she was unable to climb into a piggyback position, and everything else was either more awkward or hurt her leg. Asuna was blushing the entire time, and purposefully looked anywhere but at Kirito's face. Kirito was doing the same, looking straight ahead as they head back to the town.

By the time Kirito and Asuna had arrived back at town, it was in the afternoon; about 3:30. Kirito placed Asuna down as they reached the gate, and Asuna found that her third potion had done the trick; her health was now fully restored and her leg didn't cause her pain to walk on. "Lead the way," Asuna said to Kirito.

Kirito walked slowly, aware that Asuna's leg would feel unsteady to walk on after just healing; Cardinal was pretty good at simulating injuries. Finally, after a final turn off a side-street, Asuna and Kirito found themselves in the city center again.

"Shoot." Kirito commented. Asuna realized that the amount of people in the city center had nearly doubled since last time, and one glance at their heads told her why; about half of them were players. "It looks like they're really starting to pile in," Kirito sounded disappointed. "We should finish up my 'Quest' tomorrow and leave for the next Town the day after that or sooner if possible."

"Yeah," Asuna agreed. "We won't really be able to secure any good 'Quests' with all of these people around. Anyways, the 'Quest'-givers are over here." Asuna walked off into the crowd with Kirito close behind her. After weaving through even thicker crowds than the day before, Kirito and Asuna finally emerged into a small corner that wasn't populated with NPC shops, and therefore, people. However, there were two NPCs in the corner, a man and a woman, with an exclamation mark above their head.

Asuna approached them, and Kirito waited; this was her 'Quest'. "Hello Lucy, Kevin!" Asuna greeted the two NPCs as she approached them. "We got the package!" She happily declared. Kirito accessed his inventory and materialized the chest in front of him, and with a push, slid to over to the two NPCs.

Lucy was overjoyed. "You did it! Thank you so much!" Lucy was the only NPC speaking, while Kevin stood open-mouthed, glancing between the chest and Asuna, and then to Kirito. Lucy produced a key and inserted it into the chest, opening it.

"I can't believe you came back alive," Kevin finally commented.

"Thanks, Kevin," Asuna sarcastically replied.

Lucy emerged from the chest carrying something with both of her hands. "Here! This is one of my best wares; I want you to have it as thanks!" She presented the item to Asuna, who pressed 'Accept' on the notification and watched as the item disappeared into her inventory. Kirito hadn't seen the item, because Asuna's back was turned to him.

"Thanks, Lucy!" Asuna waved as she started to walk away.

"It's nothing! Feel free to visit anytime!" Lucy waved back, as a NPC shop materialized around her, sporting swords as their wares.

Kirito was shocked. "A weapon-store?! I thought they were only available in the next town over! Who knew it would be the ending to a 'Quest'?" Asuna only smiled slyly at his comments, before opening her menu and starting a trade.

Kirito's attention was stolen away from the weapon-store when a notification appeared in front of him, letting him know that 'Asuna' was giving him an item for free. He glanced at Asuna before he glanced at the item, wondering what she was doing. "Not much use to me," she explained.

Kirito turned back to the item in the trade window, and his eyes widened. The item was a green, one-handed sword with what Kirito considered to be amazing stats.

 _Emerald Blade – 5 Attack, 250 Durability. PreReq: 3 'Strength'_

He couldn't believe it. The reward for the 'Quest' was not only a weapon-store, which Kirito knew for a fact didn't exist in this town, but it was also a one-handed, 'Strength'-type sword. "Asuna," he started. "I don't know what to say; this is amazing!" He pressed the 'Accept' button and immediately brought the sword out of his inventory, feeling the weight of the sword and marveling at the shiny, green surface.

Asuna smiled and replied, "How about…you owe me a nice, new rapier?" She was teasing him, but he responded completely seriously.

"Done; this is probably the best sword I'll get for the next two floors." Kirito still hadn't taken his eyes off of the blade as he turned it in his hands, now admiring the sharp edges.

"Kirito." Asuna snapped his attention away from the blade and back to her. "I'm exhausted, let's go back to the hotel." Kirito agreed and put the green blade back in his inventory, re-equipping the Beginning Sword. "Don't want to attract attention to it," he said, recalling the incident with Kibaou.

[Time Shift]

Asuna and Kirito were soon seated at the table in their hotel room, and were eating the last four sandwiches that Asuna had packed. Kirito devoured the two that belonged to him, starting with the store-bought one. "You know, Asuna," Asuna took another bite of her sandwich and raised her eyebrow to show Kirito that she was listening. "I can tell which of these sandwiches were yours, even though they were both spicy sandwiches."

Asuna, intrigued, asked the question she knew that Kirito was waiting for. "Ok, how?"

"Yours was the second one. It had way more flavors, and they all mixed together better."

Asuna had expected some sort of joke, and blushed at the unexpected compliment. "Thank you; I thought I put too much hot sauce in."

Kirito laughed in response. "You can never make something too spicy for me; I love spicy foods."

Asuna raised her eyebrow again, "Oh? I'll be testing you on that, then." Kirito only looked excited.

Asuna took the last bite of her second sandwich and then got up from the table. "I'm going to sleep," she declared. "I'm out of energy."

In between walking all the way over to the rock and running a lot to avoid being encircled by The Pack, Kirito and Asuna had both done a lot of work on their legs. Asuna, who had then lost the ability to put weight on her legs, had needed Kirito to carry her back to town; Kirito was tired too. "Yeah, I could use some sleep too," he agreed as he got up from the table.

Asuna got underneath her blankets and laid down, facing away from Kirito's bed. Kirito didn't bother to get underneath his blankets; the sun was still shining in the room and heating the entire room.

[Time Shift]

Kirito slowly opened his eyes, and realized that it was dark. _Well so much for the idea of a 'nap'._ He could feel that the room was no longer being heated by the sun; he had woken up because he was cold. When we he was about to move to get underneath his blankets, he heard a sob.

Moving very slowly, he turned his head towards Asuna's bed, and saw that she was still lying down with her back towards him. He could tell from the lump of blankets on top of her, that her breathing was shallow and erratic. Another sob was heard, and the lump of blankets shook with it. There was no question; she was crying.

"Asuna?" Kirito's voice startled Asuna, and she quickly rolled over with a gasp to see Kirito's onyx pools of worry, starting straight at her. "Asuna, what's wrong?" Kirito could see that her eyes were red and her cheeks raw, showing the multiple paths the tears had taken as they left her face.

The tears from Asuna's face continued after their brief interruption. "I slowed you down today," she finally said. She looked ashamed, and the tears still continued to freely flow down her face.

Kirito recalled their conversation in the cave. _How about this? As long as you pay your half of the rent for the hotel rooms and don't slow me down, I'll stay partied with you._ Kirito realized what was going through her head. "Asuna, if that Pack Wolf had been aiming for me instead, it would have got me. I realized it too late; it was just luck that it aimed for you instead of me." Kirito believed every word he said, knowing full well that it _was_ true. "Besides," he continued. "There was no way I could've taken The Pack by myself."

Asuna didn't respond, but tears continued to roll down her cheeks and onto the pillow beneath her. "It's not just that," she quietly responded. "If I had been alone…I would have died. When that Pack Wolf got me, I saw my health; it went skyrocketing downwards, and I couldn't do anything about it. Five more seconds and the other Pack Wolf would have reached me, and I would have been dead." Asuna paused, before carefully choosing her next words. "I need to be strong in this world… and I wasn't."

It was Kirito's turn to talk. "Asuna, you're easily the strongest person I've seen in this game yet. You are my equal, if not my superior, in combat. That's the whole point of this game, Asuna; you can't win on your own. No one will ever be strong enough on their own, we all need each other to win."

Asuna didn't quite understand. "Then how come you play solo?"

Kirito sighed. "You can get pretty far playing solo, if you play it right. But I never once solo'd a boss; it's impossible."

A lot of preconceived notions of Kirito collapsed in Asuna's head in that moment, before he spoke again. "But I always played solo. During the boss raids, I stuck to myself and fought by myself, there was no one to help me if I fell down, and I knew it. I was forced to play much more conservatively than the other players, but I was still constantly at a larger risk than the others who worked together." Kirito paused. "It's just smarter to not play solo, but it's not that easy when you don't have any friends… that play this game."

Asuna got out from underneath her blankets and sat on the edge of her bed, facing Kirito; Kirito mirrored her. After Kirito had adjusted his position, Asuna spoke, while facing the ground. "I don't have any friends that play this game either. I'm alone in this world; same as you."

There was a long pause before Kirito's voice broke the silence. "Except you're not." Asuna looked up from the ground and into Kirito's face at this comment. _What? I know for a fact that none of my friends play this game._ "And I'm not either," he continued. "And you know why?"

Asuna shook her head.

"You know why that Pack Wolf didn't succeed in killing you, Asuna?" Kirito continued without waiting for the answer. "It's because I was there. And if that Pack Wolf had grabbed me instead, I know you would've been there for me too." Kirito smiled, and Asuna's eyes widened and quivered at his beautiful speech. "And I'll always be there, to make sure you don't die. I plan on partnering with you till the very end."

Asuna gasped softly. "You really…?" She found that she was unable to finish her question.

"Yeah, Asuna. I promise to stay partnered with you until the very end of the game. I'll get you back to the other world alive." Kirito paused before repeating his statement. "We'll stay partners for this entire world; that is, if you let me." He smiled at his own joke.

Before Kirito knew what had happened, he was lying on his back on his own bed, with Asuna hugging him tightly from the front. Her head was right next to Kirito's left ear, so he heard her soft "Thank you."


	14. Chapter 13: Escort

**Chapter 13: Escort**

Kirito woke up the next morning with a six-second yawn; his all-time record. As he opened his eyes, he saw Asuna standing behind the table in their hotel room, putting away of the sandwich ingredients, eventually leaving four sandwiches on the table. But Kirito's eyes weren't on the sandwiches, he found himself staring at Asuna.

Asuna happily declared, "I made more sandwiches!" but Kirito didn't move from the bed. Sitting up in his bed, he ignored the sandwiches on the table. He stared for long enough that Asuna began to wonder what was going on. "What?" She asked him, her tone becoming worried and curious. _I really hope he's not trying to talk about my mental breakdown last night,_ Asuna realized.

"You took off your cloak," he finally said. Kirito scanned through his memories of her, which all included her wearing a cloak; he had never once seen her without her cloak on. Asuna internally breathed a sigh of relief, and her tone returned to its happy, normal self.

"Well I can't wear it _all_ the time," Asuna said, before handing him a sandwich. The other two sandwiches were already placed in her inventory, and she held her own.

Kirito saw now that her hair was long; _really_ long. The cascade of hazel fell to her lower back before it stopped, and twisted and turned with her every movement. "How is it possible for a cloak to hide that much hair?" He finally asked.

Asuna giggled as she responded, "Well, I normally put it in a braid whenever I put the cloak on; I would rather not have a monster giving me a terrible haircut in the middle of combat."

"Oh." Kirito was done being mesmerized by the length of her hair, and turned his attention back to his sandwich. Within a minute, Kirito's sandwich was gone and he was out of his bed, ready for the day.

[Time Shift]

Kirito and Asuna left earlier than they normally did, planning on leaving the city that day if possible. First however, was Kirito's 'Quest'. That was why, at 7:00 AM, Kirito and Asuna found themselves walking down a dirt road that led away from the east gate of the city. "The NPC said there would be a path all the way to the mountains where the old man is; this must be it," Kirito explained.

"Well that seems rather easy," Asuna commented. "We have a path all the way to our 'Quest"; it can't possibly be that easy."

Kirito shrugged. "All the NPC said was that her grandpa left three days ago, which would be five now, and he had planned to come back after only one day."

Asuna looked mortified. " _FIVE DAYS?!_ We should have done this 'Quest' first! Mine was just a wooden chest; it could wait there forever!"

"Asuna, calm down." Asuna was not near doing any such thing, and let Kirito know that. "Asuna, it's a NPC 'Quest'. That old man is exactly the same as a wooden chest. In fact, I guarantee that if we backed out of the 'Quest', the NPC that gave it to me would still say 'three days ago'. Nothing will happen until we interact with the 'Quest'."

Asuna found his explanation convincing, and calmed down. "So… did the NPC mention what we have to do?" Asuna asked, thinking their 'Quest' was a little ambiguous.

"Well," Kirito realized the same thing that Asuna did. "She didn't. All she told me to do was to go the mountains to the east of town, and find her grandpa. For all I know, it could be a simple 'Retrieve' 'Quest' with no monsters involved."

"Now that would be nice," Asuna commented.

"Or the 'grandpa' could be completely lost inside a mountain cave full of monsters, and we have to find him." Kirito shrugged. "Somewhere in between those two."

"Thanks for that, Mr. Pessimistic."

The dirt path that Kirito and Asuna was quickly covered by snow as they got farther away from the city, where less people ventured out to see what the path could possibly be leading to. However, the path through the snow was still clear, shown through the thinness of the snow. It wasn't long before the two reached the top of a small incline and saw the mountains right in front of them; they weren't very tall mountains.

Kirito recognized the mountains immediately. "Oh, it's the tunnel mountains."

Asuna, remembering his pessimistic comment from earlier, started to wonder if there was a 'Luck' statistic she hadn't leveled up yet. "This is a coincidence right? There's no way we have to go through a ton of tunnels just to find some old man."

"No, I don't think so. I recognize these mountains." Kirito started thoughtfully at the mountains before he started down the path towards them again, explaining as he walked. "They aren't really called the tunnel mountains, we just called them that in the beta-test. They're really short mountains, but when you get close you see why; they're filled with tunnels. No one knows how deep the tunnels go because it was restricted during the beta-test. There were a ton of forums discussing them, but in the end no one found anything interesting around them, so we just decided it was an unfinished part of the map and moved on."

"So it's a coincidence?" Asuna checked.

"I guess so. Unless that 'Quest' wasn't available during the beta-test, someone would have posted something about a 'Quest' that involved the tunnels on the forums, and the news would have spread like wildfire," Kirito responded.

A shout stopped the two in their tracks. "Hey! Up here! Hey!" Both Kirito and Asuna looked towards the voice, startled. Further down the trail, at the base of the mountain, was an old man, waving and shouting excitedly.

Kirito equipped his Emerald Blade as he ran, now with improved stats.

 _[Upgraded] Emerald Blade – 7 Attack, 400 Durability. PreReq: 3 'Strength'_

Asuna had already equipped her Wind Rider cloak since the beginning of the journey, and therefore reached the old man before Kirito did.

When Kirito caught up to Asuna, Asuna filled Kirito in. "He says that he's been stuck here for three days- "

"Told you so," Kirito interrupted.

"This is no time for that," she replied; but she wore a smile on her face. "Anyways, he's been trapped here for three days because every time he tries to leave, the Bandits try and get him. Apparently they're lying in wait somewhere for him to leave the safety of the tunnels in the mountain, and when he saw us coming he couldn't resist waving us down for help," Asuna finished.

Kirito noticed a small cave behind the old NPC. "So that goes deeper than it looks, huh?"

The old NPC interrupted his thoughts, "So will you two help me get back to town? My granddaughter must be worried sick.

Kirito placed the cave aside in his mind and turned to the old NPC that was now addressing him. "Yep, let's go!"

"Excellent!" The NPC replied. "I'll let you lead the way; as soon as I step off the path, Bandits will attack us."

Kirito confidently strode back onto the path and gestured for Asuna and the NPC to follow. "Not a problem," he said as he turned the Emerald Blade in his hand.

Asuna followed behind him, drawing her Beginning Rapier. She scanned the area around her, wondering where the Bandits could possibly be hiding. All around her were the short mountains, which seemed to be nothing but towering rocks until they smoothed out at the top. In front of her were the snow plains she had walked through on her way here, and they held no hiding spots. _I don't get it. Where could Bandits possibly be hiding?_

It was then that the old NPC stepped onto the path behind Kirito and Asuna. Suddenly Bandits seemingly jumped out of the mountains around the three, and Asuna now saw that the dark shadows of rocks on the mountains were actually well-hidden caves. Now that she looked, if every dark shadow on the mountain side was a cave, there were _hundreds_.

The old NPC walked down the path at a regular pace, seemingly unfazed by the presence of the Bandits. Kirito noticed that the old NPC had continued to walk, despite their new foes, and caught on to the 'Quest' objective. "Asuna!" He yelled out as he prepared to face his first foe. "I think the NPC is going to keep walking until we escape the Bandits, which means that there are probably an infinite number of them!"

Asuna's heart sunk. _What does he mean, an infinite number of Bandits? That would make this 'Quest' literally impossible!_

Kirito seemingly read her thoughts as he continued. "Which is why the NPC is still moving down the path!" The first Bandit reached Kirito and swiped at him with his shortsword. Much like the Goblin Bandits, these Bandits wore little armor other than pants and a piece of cloth wrapped around their face, hiding it. This also revealed that all of the Bandits were male. Also like the Goblin Bandits, the Bandits wielded shortswords. However, these Bandits followed a more offensive attack pattern, focused only on destroying the enemy rather than preserving their own life, and they came in infinite supply.

Kirito dodged the swing easily and swung back at the Bandit with Driving Slash. The attack connected, and sent the Bandit crashing to the ground a good distance away, his health in the yellow. "So all we have to do," Kirito continued yelling to Asuna as if his short battle had never happened. "Is defend the NPC until we get out of range of the Bandits and they give up!"

A Bandit rushed towards the old NPC, which was now a short distance ahead of Kirito and Asuna. Asuna spotted the Bandit and rushed to the NPC's side, halting the Bandit's charge. The Bandit released a sword skill and swung at Asuna, but was met with her Parry and sent off-balance. Asuna quickly followed up with Twin Sting, which both connected with the chest, and sent the Bandit reeling backwards.

Kirito rushed to the side of the NPC as well, readying his blade for the fresh Bandits that were charging at them. _There's a lot of them,_ he thought as he scanned their numbers. _Six of them are charging us right now, and there look to be at least ten more behind them._ It was then that Kirito noticed the Bandit that had first attacked him. The Bandit's health was in the yellow, and he slunk back towards the tunnels, uninterested in combat any further. "Asuna!" Kirito yelled out yet again. "We don't have to kill them! Just injure them and they should stop chasing!"

The horde of Bandits finally caught up with the three, so Asuna had no time to question his command. She ducked under the swing of a Bandit's sword and hit him hard in the chest with a Sting, sending him to the ground. With no time to follow up, she halted another swing from a different Bandit with a Standstill, before quickly ending the Standstill and slashing the Bandit with a Cross Slash. Both Bandits gave up their pursuit and lay on the ground, allowing their reserves to take their place in the chase.

Kirito Parried a blade before using Horizon Slash to injure two Bandits at once, and then charged two Bandits that had charged past him. Using Driving Slash, Kirito ran up behind one of the Bandits and slashed at his legs, sending the Bandit falling to the ground. The second Bandit turned around and quickly slashed at Kirito with a sword skill swipe, but Kirito Parried it before nailing that Bandit with a Driving Slash as well.

Kirito glanced to check that the NPC was still moving, but was met with horror. A Bandit had somehow gotten past the both of them, and was mere feet away from the NPC; this was the end. Asuna spotted the previously unseen Bandit as well, and rushed to the NPC's aid, but it was too late. The Bandit swung to take out the NPC's legs, and, despite knowing that the 'Quest' was already a failure, Kirito found himself running towards the NPC as well.

The blade glinted in the sunlight as it was about to connect with the NPC's legs, but the NPC was just as unfazed as ever. With sudden speed, the old NPC twisted his body and punched the Bandit, stopping his sword swing and sending him sprawling on the path.

"Whew," the old NPC commented. "That's just about all I have in me; don't let any more catch up to me!"

Kirito was both amazed and confused. The old NPC was clearly dropping a hint that the next Bandit to reach him would succeed in his goal; that much was clear. But when the NPC had punched the Bandit, a yellow light had encased his hand; like a sword skill. _A sword skill for your hand?_ Kirito thought. _No… that's ridiculous._

Kirito and Asuna both caught up to the old NPC and turned, prepared to fight off the Bandits yet again, but were met with only a few foes. Apparently, the other dozen or so had given up on the chase, and all that was left were a measly three Bandits; they were gone within seconds.

[Time Shift]

At the gate to the city, the little girl-NPC was waiting for them. The old man NPC found a second wind and rushed to meet his granddaughter, who, glad for his return, immediately hugged him. The old NPC turned back to Kirito and Asuna. "I can't thank you enough for this," he said. The little girl-NPC added "Thank you so much!"

"Just doing what anyone else would have done in our place," Kirito replied. Asuna caught the double-meaning in his words and thought it slightly rude, but a bit funny.

"Still," the old NPC continued. "I must thank you somehow. I will teach you my martial arts." A golden light briefly shone around Kirito and Asuna, before a notification appeared, alerting the both of them that a new sword skill had been gained.

 _Martial Arts: This sword skill allows you to use your body as your weapon, striking out in any way you choose while activating the Martial Arts sword skill._

Kirito read the notification with wide eyes. _So there_ is _a sword skill for your hand._ Kirito, unable to resist, pulled his hand back as if he were about to punch something. Kirito felt as the system caught his movement and activated the sword skill, causing his hand to be enveloped in yellow flame-like light. He punched at the open air in front of him, and was rather impressed with the raw force that he had felt present. Asuna, more patient than Kirito, had simply watched; she was resolved to try it later.

Kirito grinned and turned back to the old-NPC, who was smiling. "See?" the old man proudly said. "You've got it already!"

"This is thanks enough," Kirito responded. "In fact, I should thank you for this; it's much better than money." Kirito and Asuna both wholeheartedly agreed with the words, aware that they could easily gain money doing more 'Quests'.

The old NPC and his granddaughter smiled and waved as they walked away, fading back into the crowd. "Hey, Asuna," Asuna turned and saw Kirito staring up at the sky with a hand to his face to block the sun. "That 'Quest' didn't take very long, we can start on our journey to the next town today, if you want."

Asuna looked up at the sky as well, and saw that the sun still wasn't very high; Kirito was right. "Yeah, let's leave today," she responded.


	15. Chapter 14: Crossroads

**Chapter 14: Crossroads**

After some last-minute shopping (mostly insisted upon by Asuna), Kirito and Asuna embarked out of the town, northwards, toward the snowy mountains in the distance. It was not long before Kirito and Asuna ran into a pack of Snow Wolves, but their technique and strategy had been greatly increased because of their battle with The Pack. Fighting as partners against less coordinated Snow Wolves, the two easily defeated their only contenders on their path.

Kirito and Asuna soon reached the top of a small hill, and saw the rock where they had fought The Pack. Asuna's attention was stolen as she slowed to a stop and stared at the rock. _There's no wooden chest,_ she realized. It only took Kirito about two seconds to realize that Asuna had stopped moving, and he halted as well. He glanced at the rock where Asuna's 'Quest' had taken place.

"I'm glad we got that 'Quest'," Kirito broke the traveling silence.

Asuna, shocked, turned to him with surprised eyes to read his expression. Kirito remained staring at the rock, ignoring Asuna's look. _How can he say that?_ Asuna wondered, almost offended. _I nearly died!_ She studied his expression further, but all was normal. _Don't tell me… he doesn't think this is still a… a game… does he?!_

Kirito turned to Asuna and smiled, which only sent Asuna deeper into confusion and shock before he spoke. "If someone else got that 'Quest', who knows if they would've been successful. I'm glad it was us, because we were ready for that 'Quest', as challenging as it might have been."

Asuna's expression remained shocked, but her opinions had changed. _Of course… who else would have had the knowledge or skills to win that fight? In a way, it_ is _good that we did that 'Quest'._ Asuna smiled back as she agreed, "Yeah, I guess you're right." She looked back at the rock again. "It was a challenging 'Quest', but I'm glad we did it, even if it's only because some unknown person gets to live because of us." Asuna smiled warmly before she turned away from the rock and started to walk down the path again, which led north, and now away from the rock. _You really are a kind person, Kirito; where are the friends you people are supposed to have?_

Kirito also turned and continued to walk down the path, before he drew his sword and admired it with both of his hands. "And top of that," he added, "this sword is pretty amazing."

Asuna grinned. "Don't forget, you owe me a rapier!" She put on her best evil grin.

Kirito, surprised by the sudden transformation in tone, answered quickly, "O-Of course!" Asuna could see he looked nervous, so she dropped her evil grin and started to laugh, normally. Kirito quickly joined in the laughter as the mood once again changed. Placing the Emerald Blade back in its sheath, Kirito and Asuna continued down the path.

[Time Shift]

"How long is this tunnel?" Asuna's voice was heard by Kirito about five different times, each quieter and farther than the last, even though she was right beside him. The two were currently traveling in an underground cave, that went straight through the mountain. Asuna referred to the cave as a tunnel, because the ground was surprisingly flat and the passageway large. The only sign that it was indeed a cave, were the occasional stalagmite or stalactite, or the fact that the walls weren't very even and zig-zagged around as the cave continued. Kirito and Asuna's only source of light, being about halfway through the cave, was a torch that Kirito carried.

"It's a pretty big cave," Kirito responded. "By the time we're out of the tunnel, it should only be an hour or two of a walk to the next town."

Asuna noticed his fake answer. "You didn't answer the question," she stated accusingly. _Does he think I won't like the truth, or does he not know?_ she wondered.

Kirito rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "Well…I know that it's a few hours' journey to get through the cave, but I lost track of time. For all I know, the exit might be within five minutes, or an hour and a half." Kirito instinctively made himself just a bit smaller by hunching his shoulders slightly and sucking in slightly; he expected Asuna to be upset with him, though he didn't know why.

Asuna however, was doing some estimation. "I think we've been in this tunnel for… I don't know… an hour? Probably." Unbeknownst to both Kirito and Asuna, Asuna's guess was only fifteen minutes off; they had been in the cave for an hour and fifteen minutes. Asuna finished her mathematical conclusion. "So we have about three to four hours of travel left." Kirito visibly deflated at the projected numbers, but Asuna was undeterred. "Which leaves plenty of time to find an inn or hotel in town!" She declared cheerfully. The last bit of projection revived Kirito's will, and he visibly re-inflated.

It was about thirty minutes later when Kirito suddenly stopped after rounding a corner. Asuna, noticing his sudden halt, walked beside him and saw what he had stopped for. Next to Kirito, and previously hidden from Asuna's sight, was another tunnel-like cave. The opening was small, enough for one person at a time to walk through, and would not have been noticed by Kirito if he hadn't been sliding his hand across the cave wall. "It's a cave," Kirito said.

"Thanks for that, Captain Obvious," Asuna replied. She looked down into the side-cave, but only see a few yards before the cave turned and blocked her from seeing any farther down.

Kirito stared down the cave, wracking through his memory of the beta-test and the forums on the game for any mention of a side-cave in this path, but he remembered nothing. _Must not have been very significant then,_ he reasoned. "It's probably nothing," he told Asuna. He turned his attention away from the cave, and Asuna did the same. Mere milliseconds after he started to walk forwards, a screech echoed from the side-cave he had just turned away from; Kirito and Asuna found themselves interested in the side-cave once again.

"It didn't sound human," Kirito said to Asuna.

"No, it definitely wasn't," Asuna agreed. "But the sound wouldn't have happened unless a player was there, right?

In response to Asuna's question, Kirito suddenly bolted into the side-cave, equipping his Emerald Blade as he ran down the narrow path. Asuna ran after him, realizing his answer to the question. Soon after, the voices of men could be heard echoing through the side-cave, which made Kirito run down the side-cave even faster. Asuna, with her Wind Runner cloak equipped, could have passed Kirito, but the path was too narrow. However, it was only about a minute of running down the side-cave before it suddenly opened into a large cavern. The only reason that Kirito and Asuna could tell it was a large cavern, was because of the torch that Kirito bore, and the torches of the men below them.

The cavern was just as large as the cavern that Kirito and Asuna had fought Bandits in on their first 'Quest', but unlike that cavern, it was lit only by torches, making the entire room darker. Due to the size, the torch light didn't reach the ceiling of the cavern, giving the impression of a rather tall cavern. Kirito and Asuna stood on a raised bit of rock, with an opening behind them; the side-cave. Leading down from the rock, on both sides, were evenly cut stairs, which eventually ended on the ground where the men stood. The men were in the process of putting their swords away before Kirito and Asuna ran into the room, and now their swords remained half-sheathed as they stared in wonder at the sudden arrival of Kirito and Asuna. Numbering three men, they were silent as Kirito and Asuna stared back at them.

Kirito realized that he had his Emerald Blade drawn, and quickly sheathed it back. Asuna had already sheathed her rapier upon noticing that the men were facing no enemies. _So they didn't need help after all,_ Kirito thought; he mentally scoffed at himself. _Why did I assume they would?_

A previously unseen man suddenly appeared from behind a stalagmite in front of the men, and turned to face the new arrivals. He sheathed his sword and waved friendlily at Kirito and Asuna, before freezing his wave. He squinted at Kirito before his eyes grew wide again, and Kirito got the strange feeling that he knew this man. The man suddenly spoke: "Is that… Kirito?" The shock must have shown on Kirito's face, because the man suddenly laughed before speaking again. "Who would've thought we'd meet again here? How are you, man?"

Kirito suddenly realized who the man was. "Klein!" Kirito exclaimed. "I'm glad to see you made it all the way out here all right. Are these guys the friends you were talking about?" Kirito gestured to the three men who had finally regained their composure and fully sheathed their swords.

"Yep!" Klein smiled wide. "I found them, and we're doing pretty good, don't you think?" Klein turned his attention away from Kirito and back towards the men behind him. "This is the beta-tester I told you guys about," Klein explained. Almost instinctively, Kirito moved his hand towards his sheathed sword, before the men started smiling and talking. _Beta-tester isn't derogatory to them,_ Kirito realized. He moved his hand away from his sword and became relaxed once again.

Klein gestured for Asuna and Kirito to join him on the floor, and Asuna was the first to oblige, with Kirito following closely behind on the stairs. "So, Kirito," Klein had a smirk on his face. "If know you, I'm willing to bet that you came here because there's some great treasure here, right?" Klein clearly thought he had hit the jackpot.

Kirito shrugged. "I don't know, man. I haven't been down here before, and no one on the forums ever mentioned this place; you might be the first person to ever find it." Klein was both shocked and ecstatic.

He turned to his three friends and shared the amazing news. "You hear that, guys? The _beta-tester_ has never heard of this place! We could be the first!" Kirito instinctively tensed again, but relaxed just as quickly as he reminded himself that he was fine. Klein's friends started talking even more excitedly, speculating on everything that could possibly be waiting in store for them.

Klein turned back to Kirito and pointed to a hole in the wall behind him, opposite of the entrance to the cavern. "That opened up after we beat the Bats, do you want to come with us? We can split whatever the reward is." Kirito realized that this must have been one of the fabled 'Open Quests'. An 'Open Quest', Kirito remembered, was when no actual 'Quest' was given, meaning that the normal 'Quest' rules didn't apply. Everyone in the entire game could take the 'Quest' all at once, but it was never listed or notified anyone about being a 'Quest'. In this case, the 'Quest' was a monster dungeon, much like the actual 'Quest' that Kirito and Asuna had completed. Everyone that was in the room when the 'Open Quest' was completed would receive an automatically even portion of the prize. Some 'Open Quests' were only able to be completed by a single person, but Kirito knew that this 'Open Quest' could be a group thing. The last thing Kirito knew about 'Open Quests', is that they generally held amazing rewards, given how hard they were to find and then recognize.

"Sure," Kirito finally responded. Asuna, however, looked terrified.

"B-Bats?! There are Bats in here?!" She was suddenly scanning the ceiling for any trace of Bats, in case one decided to swoop down on her at that very moment Her sword arm shot to her rapier, but the rapier didn't leave its sheath.

"Yeah," Klein interjected. He looked up at the ceiling as well, but without fear. "They're only redeeming feature is their speed; they didn't do a lot of damage and it took us forever to land a hit, but once we did it only took a single hit to kill them." Klein gestured to his own health bar and then his friends, who were just now drinking some health potions; they were all in mid-yellow. "The Bats had his down to yellow before we figured out how to deal with them, and then it was easy pickings." Klein's commentary on the battle calmed Asuna slightly. She took her hand off of her rapier, but she remained looking at the ceiling.

Klein walked off to talk to his friends, and the group of four was quickly laughing and shoving each other as they commented on each other's performances during the battle.

Kirito watched the group from afar, not interested in joining in. _They're so laid-back,_ Kirito thought as he watched them laugh and jeer at each other. _Even in this game of death, they've found some way to have fun._

"They look like nice people." Wrapped up in his thoughts, Kirito hadn't noticed Asuna slightly behind him. She stepped forward and was now even with Kirito, also watching the group from afar. "So Klein is one of your friends, huh? I knew you had to have at least one."

Kirito remained silent for a short bit before Asuna turned her head to look at Kirito's face. Finally, he responded, "The first time I ever met him was on Floor One, but he had friends he wanted to find and I didn't want to be in a large group, so we split. I don't really know him at all, and he doesn't really know me; we're not friends."

"Well not with that attitude," Asuna said, sounding upset. Kirito, surprised at the sudden change in mood, turned to face her as well, and saw that she looked upset as well. "He would be your friend if you just let him, so why don't you? Stop forcing people away."

 _What if she's right?_ Kirito thought as he stared at the scolding face of Asuna. _Maybe I try too hard to force people away from me._ With that thought, Kirito smiled, confusing Asuna. "I guess you're right," he said to her. With that, he left Asuna and joined Klein's group, before getting pushed over on accident and joining in on the laughter.

Asuna stared in amazement for a second at the sudden change in Kirito. _That's it? I told him to stop being so antisocial, and he stopped being antisocial?_ Asuna thought. _That was unnaturally easy._ She joined the group as well, but, unlike Kirito, she did not get accidently pushed to the ground as he did. Klein and all of his friends had a certain amount of reverence for women, and so, while it didn't look like it, they were extra careful to avoid pushing her over on accident.

Ten minutes later, Kirito successfully convinced Klein and his friends to advance down the tunnel that presumably led further down the 'Open Quest'. The tunnel was small and unlit, leaving space for two people to walk side-by-side. Klein walked in the front, bearing a torch to provide light to the rest of the group. Behind Klein were Kirito and Asuna, and behind them were Klein's three friends. The order had been decided basely on the idea that Kirito was a beta-tester, and should be near the front, whereas Kirito had insisted Klein lead, because Klein was the leader of the group.

The tunnel cave had a large echo, and after playing around with the echo for some time, the group of six quickly found the echo to sound more frightening than it did fun, which is why they now talked in hushed whispers to each other. It was a short time later when the cave once again opened up to a large cavern, and as they entered the room, Klein found good reason to put the torch back into his inventory.

The cavern/room was humongous. As soon as all six of their group emerged into the room, torches along the wall lit up through some invisible power, two at a time, one on each side. The torches continued to light up the entire perimeter of the room until they eventually reached the back wall, where the two separate lines of torches met and completed their journey around the room. Next, torches appeared in various places around the room, lighting up and revealing that they were mounted on stone pillars that reached all the way to the unseen ceiling of the room. As those torches too finished their magical lighting-up, the entire floor of the room was lit. All six of them could now see that the entire floor was nothing but stone, with random groups of stalagmites sticking up here and there, like a porcupine of rock.

However, nothing happened. No Bats fell from the ceiling and attacked, no healthbars appeared, and no treasure or pathway further was visible. Klein and his three friends began to move forward, before Kirito stopped them with his outstretched hand. "Something's wrong," he said simply. Klein and his friends trusted the beta-tester, and Asuna trusted Kirito; all waited on Kirito's next action.

Scanning the room once more, Kirito found nothing of interest. There were four stone pillars, each bearing four torches and placed in a perfect square in accordance with the other pillars. The square left a huge, open space in the middle of the room, to which Kirito slowly moved while continually scanning his surroundings for any change. Asuna, Klein, and Klein's friends slowly followed, also scanning the room for changes.

Finally, Kirito found himself in the center of the room, and saw truly that nothing in the room was interesting. The rock wall of the caves went around in a perfect circle, and the wild rock-porcupines seemed to have nothing to do with anything; they were just randomly generated cave features. _I don't get it,_ Kirito thought. _Nothing's happening, and we can see the entire room._ Kirito suddenly had a strange thought. _Except the ceiling…_ He stared up into the blackness that eventually ended at the ceiling of the cave. It was at that moment, that a deafening screech sounded throughout the entire cave. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, and all six of them covered their ears in an attempt to escape their torture. As soon as the sound ended, all six had their weapons drawn and were looking towards the ceiling, the source of the sound. The feel of heavy wind, sound of wings beating, and smell of under-wing all attacked the party of six as three healthbars appeared in the blackness of the cave ceiling, with a tag above them that read: Volthan, the Bat Lord.


	16. Chapter 15: Rage

**Chapter 15: Rage**

Kirito stared into the healthbar and title that hovered in the blackness for only seconds before realizing it. _This isn't an 'Open Quest'!_ He thought to himself. "This is the 'Field-Boss'!" he yelled to Klein and his panicked friends. "Run to the exit!"

All six of them took off towards the exit, but a sudden burst of wind blew Klein and his friends off their feet. Asuna took shelter behind a pillar and struggled against the force of the winds, while Kirito was too far for the winds to affect him too much. Before Klein and his friends could recover, Volthan showed itself.

A humongous, regular-looking bat suddenly swooped down from the ceiling. Its size was so tremendous that its mouth would be able to fit three or four people inside, but the room was so large that about four of the bat would be able to fit, side-by-side, between two of the pillars. Now Kirito understood why the room was so big; it was supposed to provide enough room for a large squadron of people to challenge the 'Field-Boss'. The bat glided above Klein and his friends before landing in the center of the room. The gust of Volthan's wings had blown Klein and his friends away from the door, meaning that Volthan was now blocking their path.

Kirito and Asuna found themselves with a clear path to the exit, and Volthan's back was turned, focused on Klein and his comrades. Asuna had her rapier drawn, and was facing the monster, ready to strike at its leathery skin before it could strike Klein and his friends. Before she got a chance, however, Kirito was already rushing Volthan. With a ferocious war cry, Kirito charged with his Emerald Blade pointed forwards. Volthan turned its head to the sound, and let out its own screech.

The screech turned out to serve as more than just echolocation for Volthan; his leathery skin hardened and turned into scales of leather, his fangs sharpened, its small feet grew sharp-looking talons, and his wings became barbed with spikes as well. The healthbar of Volthan did not change, and neither did Kirito's charge, although his thoughts raced. _This is WAY different from the beta. First of all, there was never a side-cave. Second of all, the 'Field Boss' was a Boar, and we fought it outside._ But throughout all of his thoughts, Kirito's charge and war-cry remained unchanged. As he approached Volthan, his sword glowed blue as he readied the offensive sword skill, Driving Slash.

As Kirito ran towards Volthan, Volthan ruined Kirito's plans completely. Stretching out its wings, Volthan leapt up and took flight, before opening its mouth and breathing in a large amount of air. Kirito realized immediately what had to be done. Switching his sword skill to Skyward Swipe, Kirito continued his charge until he was almost beneath Volthan, who was flying steadily in the air, wings beating only to keep altitude. _It's gathering air for a breath-attack or something,_ Kirito reasoned. _I'll have to strike it before it happens._ Leaping into the air, Kirito put almost all of his 'Strength' into his legs, and reached the wings of Volthan as they beat downwards. Volthan attempted to adjust to avoid having to recharge his breath-attack, but Kirito's Skyward Swipe connected. The leathery scales of Volthan were much stronger than a regular Bat's skin, and Kirito only succeeded in making a small cut in which red rectangles started to flow from. However, the sword skill gave Kirito an extra boost upwards, which gave Kirito the perfect altitude for Falling Star. Activating the sword skill, Kirito only managed to make tiny cuts with the first two diagonal swipes of his Emerald Blade, but the final downwards strike of his sword did the trick. Penetrating only the outer layer of the scales at first, the attack started to pick up speed as Kirito fell from the sky, and started to dig deeper and deeper, before Kirito's Emerald Blade was visible through the other side of Volthan's wing near the end of his attack.

Kirito landed roughly; the fall damage alone sent him into yellow health. Volthan's attack had been interrupted as it now screeched with pain, and red rectangles flowed throughout the air a short distance from Volthan's left wing before disappearing into the air. Volthan painfully glided back down to the ground, temporarily unable to fly due to its newfound wound. Klein and his friends were immediately in front of Kirito, who was still on the ground, and stood between Volthan and Kirito. Volthan screeched angrily again, before it started to crawl forward on its tiny, talon-bearing feet.

Klein and his friends stood their ground, swords poised to defend their wounded comrade as he drank a health potion, still laying on the ground from the impact of the fall. _Falling Star works better when you're landing on snow instead of stone,_ Kirito thought to himself. Volthan approached the five of them, and then abruptly stopped and howled with pain again. While Volthan had its back turned, Asuna had rushed the monster from behind and struck at the back of its head with Twin Sting before using her new sword skill, Martial Arts and kicked off of the back of Volthan's head, using the attack to boost herself off of the monster before it could retaliate.

Asuna's attack had dealt decent damage, and Kirito's attack had temporarily disabled Volthan, but despite all of that, Volthan's first healthbar barely dropped. Volthan turned and faced Asuna, leaving the five men facing its back. "Now," Kirito spoke from the ground. "Attack it now. Aim for the legs and the wings. Especially the wings; don't let it fly again." Klein and his friends nodded in confirmation and then rushed Volthan, leaving Kirito on the floor, still throbbing from the pain. His health was now green, and steadily going towards full-health, but every part of him hurt. Kirito attempted to stand, but quickly fell back to the ground in pain. Accepting his temporary disability, Kirito lifted himself into a sitting position and waited for the pain to cease.

Klein and his friends followed Kirito's orders well, but their weapons and levels were not good enough. Their attacks only resulted in tiny cuts that barely did any damage, and certainly didn't handicap the monster in any way The men however, were not disheartened, and continued to attack with all of their combined might.

Asuna meanwhile, was facing Volthan one-on-one. The attacks of the four men behind Volthan affected it in the most minimal of ways, and even Asuna didn't notice any change in the healthbar. Now ready to strike, Volthan, for the first time that fight, took the offensive. Asuna, not knowing the attack-pattern of the boss, fell victim to a sudden burst of wind from Volthan's wings as it surged its wings forwards, as if it were clapping. Asuna was blown off of her feet and hit the rock pillar several yards behind her roughly; her health dropped to mid-green.

Klein and his men had been surprised by the sudden attack from Volthan, and two of them who had been aiming for the wings ended up swiping at nothing, and falling forwards due to the new development. While Asuna still lay crumpled and recovering at the base of the rock pillar, Volthan once again readied his breath attack. With no one to stop the charge this time, the breath attack was unleashed, and a terrible sound, so solid that it formed a visible funnel, crashed into Asuna. The sound from the outside sounded like a heavy metal band, without any of the music; it was the pure screeching of a guitar. To Asuna, on the inside of the funnel, it sounded like she was on the inside of a steel-grinding machine as it broke down scrap metal at the loudest possible level.

Asuna covered her ears in despair, but her health wasn't dropping very fast. Because it was an AoE attack, it didn't deal much damage. Asuna's health was in the mid-yellow when the attack stopped. _Note to self,_ Asuna thought as she clutched her ears in pain. _Don't get hit by that again._

Rising up from the ground, Asuna readied her rapier once more, ready to face Volthan with her small, newfound knowledge of its attack patterns. However, Volthan let out yet another screech of pain. Surprisingly both Asuna and the four men behind Volthan, Kirito stood on top of Volthan's head, sword glowing from Public Execution as he gripped the blade with fierce determination. The Emerald Blade was buried inside of the skin, and as Volthan thrashed about, attempting to shake off its attacker, Kirito hung on to his sword and managed to keep the sword skill going.

Asuna stared up at Kirito in amazement at his stupidity. _His last attack hurt him more than it hurt Volthan, and now he's trying something even dumber!_ But to her amazement, no matter how much Volthan swiveled and roared, Kirito held on to the blade. With one swivel of Volthan's head, Asuna saw Kirito's face. _His eyes are on fire,_ she thought. Quickly dismissing the thought as pure ridiculousness, she stared at his face again, and realized that her statement was not entirely untrue. His expression was that of pure, unbridled rage, and his eyes had such a ferocity inside of them that they almost flickered like a flame would.

Kirito wasn't sure when he had got on top of Volthan. He had remembered hearing the terrible noise that was Volthan's breath attack, and then heard something smaller. He watched Asuna's health, and realized that the attack wasn't very strong, but he had heard a small yell from somewhere inside Volthan's symphony of chaos. The yell was a cry for help, to escape the pain that had befallen them; Asuna had yelled out in pain, and Kirito had snapped. The next thing he knew, he was riding a bucking bull, except it was a giant bat

The tick damage, combined with the 3x bonus multiplier from an attack connecting with the head, started to count. Volthan's first healthbar fell completely, leaving him with only two more healthbars. As soon as that happened, Volthan's wings were suddenly healed, and he took flight with a sudden shockwave that sent Asuna, Klein, and all of Klein's friends sprawling to the floor from the gust of wind. Kirito however, was still clinging to his Emerald Blade. Volthan tried every flying maneuver it was programmed with to shake Kirito off, but, fueled by the unimaginable human power of rage, Kirito remained clinging to the sword.

Volthan began to shoot off his breath-attack in random directions, whether it be towards the floor, ceiling, or walls. The sound bounced throughout the cavern and shook the entire room, sending the five people on the floor of the room diving for cover behind the pillars to avoid the randomly placed breath-attacks of a distressed and panicking Volthan. All five were also covering their ears from the terrible sound of his attacks, now wishing that there was a sound option in the game.

Volthan's second health bar disappeared as well, leaving Volthan with one last healthbar. As coded, Volthan shot off towards the ceiling, plunging Kirito in darkness. The only source of light Kirito had now was his faintly glowing sword, which gave off blue light as Kirito clutched it with all of his rage. Volthan once again started to wildly fire its breath-attack, still unable to deal with the rather stubborn intruder on its head.

It was at that moment that Kirito realized his mistake. In his rage, he hadn't really thought about what would happen if Volthan died in midair while he was still on it; the fall-damage would kill him. He would have to hope that Volthan swung low so that he could drop down instead of falling to his death. Luckily for Kirito, Volthan began to fall as his last healthbar reached its end. With one final screech of pain, Volthan dive-bombed to the floor, bathing Kirito back in light as the torches once again reached him. With his sword skill still active, Kirito remained on top of Volthan's head as it crashed to the ground belly-first, sending Kirito roughly tumbling away from the sudden stop. His sword remained inside of Volthan's head, but only lasted a few seconds before Volthan abruptly exploded into red rectangles.

Field Boss Defeated!. The giant message appeared above the empty space where Volthan had been, right before notifications suddenly appeared in front of all six people in the room. Normally taken on by at least twenty or more players, Volthan gave out a lot of Experience and Col, that was fairly split between all players. Klein and all of his friends went up three levels, much to their amazement, while Kirito and Asuna went up two. [J1] Pressing 'Accept' on his Col and Experience notification, Kirito placed his Attribute points in 'Strength', 'Agility', and 'Precision' before closing out of that notification as well. Suddenly, everyone in the room, and everyone else in the world as well, received a notification.

 _Congratulations!_

 _The 'Field-Boss' has been cleared! The entrance to the dungeon is now open!_

 _Cleared by:_

 _'_ _Kirito', 'Asuna', 'Klein', 'Kunimittz', 'Issin', 'Dynamm'_

The notification ended there, and Kirito pressed 'Accept' to close it. _Shoot,_ Kirito realized. _Now people will know our names; this is bad._ Kirito got up from the ground and reclaimed his Emerald Blade, that lay where Volthan had been only a minute before.

"Idiot!" The shout came from behind Kirito, and he turned to see Asuna, her eyes full of fury as she advanced on Kirito. Half-expecting this, Kirito stood still as Asuna approached him. "You could have died! All we had to do was distract it and position ourselves to escape, but you just HAD to risk your life for all the glory, didn't you?!" It was clear to Kirito that Asuna was furious, but every time he attempted to interject, her eyes would only dance higher with the flames of fury, and he would quickly shut up. The four other men in the room watched as the fury of a woman rained down on Kirito, but did nothing to help; women were dangerous, and they all knew that.

"I hope you're happy!" The classic woman-statement marked the end of Asuna's angry tirade as she turned away from Kirito, and marched away to the exit. Kirito glanced at the men in the room, who had all been infected by Asuna's words, and now wordlessly began to shun him. They all walked off to the exit to follow Asuna, and Kirito followed behind slowly, not murmuring a word to anyone.

[J1]Kirito and Asuna – Level 8

Klein and Co. – Level 6


	17. Chapter 16: Dejection

**Chapter 16: Dejection**

Kirito marched at the back of the pack, following Klein's friends as they followed Asuna through the tunnel. Kirito didn't dare to say a word, but he felt that he ought to mention to Asuna that there was no way they would make it to the town before nightfall; it might even be nightfall now. Yet, Kirito said nothing. Klein was right behind Asuna, bearing a torch to light the way of the tunnel. Kirito was walking behind a good distance, so the light only mildly reached him, enough so that he could place one foot in front of the other with confidence that he wouldn't trip over a wild stalagmite. The trip was silent, each and every member of the march intimidated by Asuna's previous fury.

 _I didn't do it for glory,_ Kirito thought bitterly. His need to explain his reasons seeped into his mind, enough so that he found himself arguing with Asuna inside of his head. _I don't even know why I did it. But believe me, glory was the last thing on my mind._ Kirito thought back to the notification he had received that had informed him that the 'Dungeon' could now be challenged. _And now everyone knows our names. Trust me, that was the last thing I wanted; a target on our heads._ Kirito realized then something even worse. _A target on_ our _heads. Oh no, I dragged you guys into this accidently._ _Now everyone in this world knows those names, and will think we're all beta-testers._ Kirito glanced at the men in front of him. _They really are nice people,_ he thought. Then he thought about Asuna, who was still fuming in the front of the group. _She didn't ask to bear the weight of this either… I'll have to find some way to denounce them from that notification; I should be the only one taking the heat for this._ Despite being confident with his new decision, Kirito realized that he had no idea how he would accomplish it, and he didn't feel any better about his current situation.

It was some time before the group of six emerged from the cave, and Kirito, with his head focused on the ground in front of him, barely even noticed the change in lighting; night had fallen. Asuna gave an exasperated sigh that spoke of annoyance, and Kirito noticed that the stone floor had changed to grass. He finally looked up, and saw Klein still bearing the torch, providing much more light than the moon that had risen high in the sky. All around the cave was a small clearing, enough that a party of about twenty (how coincidental) could gather comfortably without having to extend into the trees around the area. Speaking of the trees, in all three directions, tall, green trees continued until the human eye could see no further.

Kirito saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye, and glanced at it to see that Asuna had pulled out her sleeping bag. Klein and his friends were working on starting a fire, and had all pulled out their own sleeping bags as well. Asuna placed her sleeping bag on the right side of the cave exit, and pointedly glared at Kirito, daring him to do the same. Kirito sighed in defeat and got his own sleeping bag out of his inventory before placing the bag of black on the left side of the cave exit.

The sudden roar of fire was the only sound that had been heard for the past couple hours of their trip, but neither Kirito nor Asuna enjoyed its warmth. Klein and his friends silently glanced between the two, unsure of who to invite to the fire, or whether or not inviting them was a good idea at all. In the end, they decided to leave room for the both of them by the fire, but they curled into their sleeping bags and went to bed without formally inviting them to the fire.

[Time Shift]

Kirito woke up last, as per usual, by Klein. "Dude, wake up. We're about to leave." His voice was hushed and sounded urgent. Kirito groggily opened his eyes and sat up, only to realize that everyone was ready to go. Asuna stood with her back pointedly facing towards him. Kirito sighed once again in defeat and quickly got up and stored his sleeping bag back into his inventory. "Ready," he said quietly.

Once again, Kirito was left in the back of the pack, watching the ground as he marched behind Klein's friends. Klein and his friends had thought about it that night, and felt bad about the entire ordeal. They all realized that Kirito had probably saved their lives, but the wrath of a woman was a force to be reckoned with, and they didn't want Kirito to have to save them twice. The group walked through the forest along a small dirt path that allowed for two, side-by-side, unless one wanted to walk on the grass beside the path.

 _How am I supposed to explain this to her?_ Kirito asked himself as he walked. _Even I don't know why I did it._

The miracle of the trip was that the entire time, the group didn't run into any monsters. Kirito didn't think that being in combat would help his situation at all. If he helped, he would be a monster for taking the glory, and if he didn't help, he would be a monster for having everyone else fight in his place. Kirito sighed, _girls are infuriatingly complicated,_ he realized.

Finally, a clearing appeared up ahead. Speeding up slightly, the group soon emerged in a large clearing that revealed the town they had been trying to reach the entire time. Surrounded by tall, stone walls, it didn't look as grand as the other towns they had been in, but it somehow looked more appealing in its smaller size. Klein, sensing his opportunity, gave one glance to his friends and wordlessly communicated his intentions. With a sudden burst of speed, Klein and his friends ran off to the town, shouting fake words of excitement to escape the tension that Asuna was creating.

Kirito and Asuna were left walking alone to the town. Asuna pointedly refrained from running, determined to show no weakness. Kirito also walked, still a good distance behind her, determined not to give Asuna any reason to be even more angry at him. However, after a little bit of walking, Kirito realized that Klein was a bit smarter than he appeared; he had given him his opportunity.

"Asuna, I-"

"Don't talk to me." Kirito was quickly shut down by Asuna, but she still made no change in speed.

"Asuna, please," he tried again.

"I said: don't talk to me." Asuna sounded more annoyed this time, but Kirito knew that he couldn't waste this opportunity.

"I didn't do it for glory!" He blurted out. Asuna remained silent, which Kirito took as permission to continue. "I don't know why I did it, Asuna. But glory was the last thing I wanted."

Asuna suddenly stopped and swiveled, which caused Kirito to stop as well. She marched to Kirito until he could have reached his arm out and touched her. "Really?! Because that's what it looked like to me. In fact, that's what it looked like to EVERYONE IN THIS GAME!" She shouted the last words with such fury that Kirito flinched. She stood still after that, fuming, inviting him to reply.

"That's the problem," Kirito murmured. "Everyone in this game knows our names now…" Kirito stared at the ground, not meeting Asuna's eyes as her anger took on a second tone of confusion. Determined not to ask him anything, she waited until he continued, which he did. "Everyone will be a Kibaou from now on…"

That was when it hit Asuna. Her confusion turned into fear, and her anger stayed as anger. "Idiot," she spat.

But the word meant a lot more to Kirito. _I'm getting somewhere,_ he realized. "Yeah, I know I'm an idiot," Kirito tried. "I told you, I don't know why I did it, but now we're going to suffer the consequences because of my stupidity. I didn't do it for glory, Asuna, that would have been even stupider of me." He remained staring at the ground in fear of evoking Asuna's anger again, so he was unable to read her emotions.

"Promise?" Her voice still held anger in it, but it also had a tone of suspicion.

"Promise," Kirito reaffirmed.

Kirito heard an extended sigh from Asuna before she responded. "Fine," she replied. "But now you need to make it up somehow, with the entire player base thinking we're beta-testers now."

Kirito's head shot up in surprise and relief. _Yes! She believes me!_

Asuna read the relief in his facial expression and decided that she wasn't going to give him victory so easily. "I'm still upset with you, though." The simple comment made Kirito's face fall a little, but the fall was minor compared to his victory.

"I'll work something out," he promised again. "I'll get the targets off of your backs." Silently, Kirito sang praises to Klein and his genius.

[Time Shift]

The inside of the town was much like the outside, Kirito and Asuna soon discovered. The roads were all stone, and the buildings were all wood. The entire town gave the feeling of a more medieval town, and was also smaller than the other towns they had been in. A couple of NPCs walked around the town, but it was clear that it wasn't a very populated town. A few NPC shops lined the streets, all on wooden carts and sporting mostly food-goods, that suddenly reminded Kirito of something rather sacred to himself.

A rumble of his stomach alerted Asuna that Kirito was hungry, but she still hadn't fully forgiven him. She decided to pretend as if she hadn't heard the rumble, which she knew that Kirito knew she heard perfectly well. Kirito, upon receiving the silent message, sunk in his spirits.

Kirito glanced around the town once more, no longer focused on food, and realized that he saw no players around. _We can't be the first…_ Kirito thought. But the more Kirito looked around, the more he realized that he didn't see anyone around except NPCs. _They're probably somewhere else in the town,_ Kirito concluded. However, something else caught his eye.

"I'll be right back!" He yelled to Asuna as he ran off. Asuna was surprised by his sudden takeoff, but didn't follow him as he ran down the stone street. She turned away from him again, determined to show nothing other than coldness to Kirito, and started to explore all of the NPC shops that were not where Kirito was.

Kirito had, unbeknownst to Asuna, used that to his advantage. He spotted the store that could be his very redemption before Asuna did, and ran off towards it as soon as he could, with the full knowledge that Asuna wouldn't follow him or show interest in what he was doing. He ran past several wooden-cart NPC shops sporting furs and foods before he finally stopped at the store he had spotted before; a weapon-store.


	18. Chapter 17: Burden

**Chapter 17: Burden**

While Asuna was inspecting different ingredients at an NPC food store, a notification appeared in front of her, informing her that 'Kirito' wanted to give her an item for free. Intrigued, Asuna inspected said item.

 _Silver Stinger - 4 Attack, 200 Durability. PreReq: 2 'Agility'_

It was a rapier; Kirito had made good on his earlier promise. Asuna immediately forgot all of her anger against him and excitedly pressed 'Accept' on the trade request. She swiveled around to find Kirito standing there, looking expectant and worried.

She walked up to him slowly, with a serious expression on her face, and stopped a few feet in front of him. Asuna then opened her menu and scrolled through until she found the item she was looking for. Clicking on the item, a sandwich materialized in front of her, which she then held out to Kirito. "You're forgiven," she said simply, and then she dropped her serious face and smiled.

Kirito was immediately relieved, and showed it in his face. He tenderly grabbed the sandwich from Asuna's hands before devouring the sandwich in three bites, sating the hunger inside of him. "Thank you so much!" he said in relief and gratitude after he swallowed the last bite.

"Your girlfriend is still reaping the rewards of dating a beta-tester huh?" The voice immediately changed Kirito's expression; he recognized it from the only other time he heard it. Kirito didn't bother to correct the voice, but Asuna protested with a "We're just friends!"

Kirito turned to face the voice, and found Kibaou and the same two companions from the last city standing at the gate to the city; they had clearly just arrived. The only difference, was that next to Kibaou's two companions, were another two companions. The party of five was meant to seem intimidating, Kirito supposed, but Kirito wasn't very intimidated.

"Kibaou," Kirito said simply. Kirito purposefully made his expression bored, to make sure he communicated the message that Kibaou was not a challenge to him; he wasn't looking for another fight here.

"Beta-tester," was Kibaou's response. His four companions frowned at Kirito, all showing their disapproval towards his being a beta-tester. "I heard you got some friends," Kibaou continued. "Where are the four others? Off to claim all the good 'Quests' I assume?" Kibaou's four companions started murmuring and agreeing with Kibaou, before they started to get louder and angrier at Kirito, which is when Kirito had his great idea.

Kirito turned and gave a look to Asuna, which Asuna caught with confusion, before he turned back to Kibaou with his scary face on. The same cold laughter that Kirito had shown that day once again rang throughout the town, silencing Kibaou and his four companions. Kirito finally stopped his laughter and stared piercingly at the group of five. "You think those four were any good?" His tone suddenly made Kibaou and his companions question what they thought they had known. "I brought them in as meat-shields; they're lucky they survived."

Even though Asuna knew the truth, she suddenly turned cold under the tone that Kirito had set. Kibaou gasped and stared in horror at Kirito before he found the word, "Bastard!" on his tongue. Kirito laughed again at his name-calling, as if welcoming the title. Inside however, his mind was racing. _Alright, now I got those four out of this, but how do I get Asuna out of this?_

Kirito realized that his silence was betraying his act, so he quickly came up with a solution. "You're lucky you're pretty," he said, turning to Asuna so that Kibaou could see that he was addressing her. "Or else you would've been a meat-shield as well." The comment was cold, but due to Asuna's knowledge of his act, she found the compliment inside of it instead, _Wait, he thinks I'm pretty? Or was that part of the act?_ Sticking to her role however, she forced a look of mortification and fear, which was pretty convincing.

Kirito turned back to Kibaou as he addressed him this time. "You can just ignore the other five names on that notification," he said coldly. "I'm the only one who did anything." The statement rang somewhat true, but Kirito knew that without Asuna distracting the 'Field-Boss', he wouldn't have been able to get onto its head to perform Public Execution.

Kibaou's next comment threw Kirito's plan on its head. "I knew that all beta-testers were bastards," he growled in anger. He drew his sword, as if forgetting the results of the previous duel, but made no motion to start a duel. Kirito quickly realized that Kibaou expected him to attack him and his companions, despite the safe-zone all around them. However, that was the least of his worries.

 _Shoot. Now I have to convince him that_ I'm _the only bad beta-tester._ Kirito realized what he had just thought. _Wait… I'm not a bad beta-tester… right?_

During Kirito's short internal conflict, Kibaou silently gestured to his companions. Before Kirito could recapture his audience, the five of them ran off into a side-alley. _That's not good… hopefully beta-testers will be smart enough to not tell anyone they were beta-testers until I get this worked out._ Kirito didn't bother to chase; they were done listening to him. _At the very least, I convinced him that the other five aren't beta-testers, so that's good._

Kirito sighed as he shrugged off his scary-personality, and turned back to Asuna, who, unlike last time, wasn't intimidated by Kirito. "Sorry," he told her again.

Asuna only sadly smiled in response. _So this is your way of dealing with things,_ she thought. _You'll crack under the pressure if you're not careful… Kirito…_ "You don't have to apologize," Asuna said to him. Her next words completely altered the tone of the conversation. "Besides, you think I'm pretty?"

Kirito internally froze. _I said that, didn't I?_ he thought. Physically, he had frozen as well, and was left standing still, staring at Asuna as he ran through all possible answers to her question and the predicted outcomes. However, Asuna interrupted the process with a: "Do you?" that sounded dangerous enough that Kirito's mind defaulted to the original answer he had thought of.

"Yes." The answer came out before Kirito realized it, and his mind started racing once again in panic. _Oh jeez. Was that a good answer? How is she going to respond? Should I have left the answer ambiguous? Is ambiguous bad? Should my answer have been longer? What if I –_

Kirito's thoughts stopped in their tracks when he saw Asuna turn red and avert her gaze to the stone road she was standing on. "I'm sorry!" he quickly said. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine." Asuna interrupted him, but still remained facing the stone road with her red face. Before another word could be said, Asuna changed the subject. Still blushing furiously, Asuna turned to Kirito. "We should go find some 'Quests' as soon as we can. It's only morning, so we have a lot of time."

Kirito, more than happy to change the subject, picked up quickly. "Y-yeah… let's go find some 'Quests'."

[Time Shift]

The first twenty minutes of their search was, to say the least, awkward. Asuna and Kirito both avoided looking and talking to each other, which resulted in many NPCs getting confused and attempting to carry two different conversations at once. Once Kirito had noticed this, he had politely split with Asuna, "to cover more ground, like the first time," he said. From then on, the conversations that Asuna and Kirito individually had with the NPCs was much more successful, but neither resulted in a 'Quest' just yet.

It was only a short couple of NPC conversations later that Kirito and Asuna both found themselves at the end of the stone brick road. From there, the road forked into two different paths, one leftwards that curved right, and one rightwards that curved left. The two assumed that the road would meet at the end somewhere.

"I'll take right," Kirito said to Asuna. Asuna nodded.

"I'll take left, then," Asuna responded.

And so, Kirito was left, fully alone, with his thoughts.

He barely even noted the NPCs as he passed, only loosely listening to their conversations and glancing briefly at them in order to judge whether or not they held a 'Quest'; his mind was elsewhere.

 ** _"_** ** _You can just ignore the other five names on that notification."_** His earlier comment rang throughout his head. _I hope I read Kibaou right,_ Kirito thoughts as he walked down the stone path. _You're a rather loud man, so I need you to spread that to the rest of the players… that's right… I need you to spread a mutual hatred for that name…_ Kiritio grimaced. _The name I chose… 'Kirito'._

 ** _"_** ** _I'm the only one who did anything."_** That part wasn't a lie, not in the true sense that Kirito had said it. _I'm the only one who was a beta-tester out of them all; I'm the one they should all hate._ Unbeknownst to Kirito, he had already walked past two 'Quests', one of which was fairly obvious, but he was already wrapped too deeply in his thoughts.

 _It's not as if being unpopular is new to me,_ Kirito flashed through his collective memories of school. He was always quiet, and never drew attention to himself, which quickly made him the most appealing of targets for bullies. The kid too quiet to raise his voice even for himself. _Still…_ Kirito realized that the thought upset him. _I came here to escape all of that, and here I am, throwing myself into that. Is this simply the burden fate would have me carry?_

A 'ping' sounded in Kirito's menu, quickly drawing Kirito's attention back to the world around him. He looked around, and realized that he had been walking for a while now, without talking to any NPCs. None of the wooden-cart shops looked familiar, and Kirito realized that he must have walked down the curved road for quite some time. Returning his attention to his menu, he saw that his 'Party' just accepted a 'Quest', called 'The Tree Troupe'.

 _Sounds interesting,_ Kirito thought. _Guess I should find a 'Quest' myself._ Kirito quickly set to work talking to all the NPCs he could find.

Asuna stopped at every NPC shop she passed as she continued down the curved stone-road. With a 'Quest' accepted, she no longer had anything to worry about, so she may as well check out the merchandise; that was her mentality anyways. The first shop she had visited was full of cloths and fabrics, many of which Asuna found pretty, but Asuna realized that she had no use for them and moved on.

It wasn't long before Asuna found an NPC shop with food ingredients. Asuna soon discovered that it was a fruit-based NPC shop, and sported a wide variety of fruits. Her mind quickly began working with all the ways she could possibly integrate these fruits into her cooking, but the most she could come up with was using them as a side-dish or possibly as a jam, if the system would allow it. _Guess I need a higher cooking skill before I can do anything fancy with them, huh?_ Nevertheless, Asuna ended up buying a wide variety of fruits, some of which she didn't even recognize.

As Asuna completed the purchase, she realized that the amount of Col she had obtained was barely even dented. _Do I have a lot of money, or is the fruit just cheap?_ Deciding to solve the mystery in the only logical way; she would find things that she judged to be worth a lot of money, and compare them to the amount of Col she had. _Oh yeah, I have a new rapier to upgrade_ She placed her Beginning Rapier back into her inventory and pulled out the new one that Kirito had presented to her not long ago.

Drawing the blade for the first time, she admired its silver shine and light feel. _Silver Stinger…_ Asuna's thoughts drifted to Kirito in combat with his Emerald Blade. _Now it's_ my _turn to shine in combat. But first, I have to find a blacksmith._

Asuna glanced around quickly, as if she expected to suddenly notice a blacksmith that she had missed before. Seeing none, and recalling none in her earlier path, Asuna continued down the curved, stone road, thoughts now absorbed with the Silver Stinger she held in her hand. Soon, as a train of thought does, her thoughts shifted to Kibaou's appearance after Kirito had given her the Silver Stinger, and Kirito's words.

 ** _"_** ** _You can just ignore the other five names on that notification."_** Kibaou might not have seen it, but Asuna understood perfectly. _Kirito… in order to save everyone else from persecution, you're taking the burden yourself… but can you handle it?_

[Time Shift]

Kirito wandered from NPC to NPC, still unsuccessful in securing a 'Quest'. "Dang," he mumbled to himself. "I've talked to nearly almost twenty of them, and not a single one had a 'Quest'." He swept his gaze around the stone brick road again, and realized that he recognized every single NPC in sight from an earlier conversation he held with them. However, he didn't spot a single player. Sighing in defeat, he continued his trail down the stone brick road. _How did Asuna manage to find one so fast?_

He walked along, watching the corner of the curve to catch sight of the NPCs as soon as possible. However, the first NPC he encountered, was not an NPC at all; it was Asuna.

"Kirito!" She said his name in surprise, but quickly recovered. "So no 'Quest', huh?" She put on the smirk of victory.

Kirito sighed and bowed his head. "No…" he mumbled. Asuna couldn't actually hear him, but she understood perfectly what he had said. "Well I found my 'Quest' in no time, as you could tell," she bragged. "And I upgraded my rapier!"

Kirito lifted his head in excitement; weapons were his area of expertise. "There's a blacksmith around here? What are the stats of your new rapier now?" No longer bowing his head in defeat or wearing the look of shame, he approached Asuna, who was scrolling through her menu.

Swiping her screen to rotate it, she showed Kirito the Silver Stinger's new stats.

 _[Upgraded] Silver Stinger - 5 Attack, 300 Durability. PreReq: 2 'Agility'_

Answering Kirito's first question, Asuna pointed to the road behind her. "The blacksmith is just a little farther down the road. It's an NPC-run blacksmith of course." Certain that Kirito had had enough time to soak in the new statistics of the blade, Asuna closed her menu.

"Not bad," Kirito said, looking up from where the stat menu had been only a second before. "You'll really be able to get some damage out of that, especially with your impeccable accuracy."

"W-What do you mean?" Asuna stammered. Still not entirely used to receiving compliments, she was slightly taken back.

"You manage to strike your enemies pretty accurately wherever you want to hit them." Kirito explained. "While it may only be two extra damage than your previous rapier, hitting an enemy in the head, with a sword skill that doubles your damage, should result in about a 67% damage increase than your previous rapier, or 12 more damage.

"Wow," Asuna was both impressed and disappointed. "You're pretty good at math, but that's not much of a damage increase…"

"Well… not really," Kirito admitted. "To the math thing, that is. In a game like this, every bit of damage counts, and it's not like you'll only be hitting your enemy once; your Blade Flurry just got a huge upgrade. Your Double Sting alone normally hits your opponent's head twice, so with your new and improved rapier, it should deal 24 more damage that before, which is a notable difference."

Now Asuna was understanding how the slight differences in swords really mattered. "Ah, but what do you mean, you're not good at math? That was some pretty quick calculations, figuring out the percentage difference especially. I should know, I'm in some higher-level math classes, or… was." She quickly shook the thought away.

Kirito ignored the last comment, aware of the invisible taboo that players had already invested in discussing the outside world; especially in this world. "I understand math and stuff, but I'm really only this good when it comes to games. To be the best, you have to understand the game well, so I got really good at understanding the slight differences between swords and their damage output early in the beta." Kirito instinctively tensed and glanced around, afraid he may have attracted some unwanted attention.

 _Carrying that burden alone, huh? Can you really handle it?_ Asuna looked at the boy in front of her. Yes, the boy. This was not the hardened war veteran she has seen; this was a boy. _Can a boy really carry the hate of thousands on his shoulders?_ Her eyes started to fill with pity, before she realized and named her own feelings. _Pity? No. Pity is for those that are unable to help. He promised to get me out of this world, so I'll help him with the burden he's tasked himself with._ The mental decision was set in stone before Kirito affirmed that no one had learned that he was a beta-tester. In fact, no one was around at all; only NPCs.

"Anyways Asuna," her eyes immediately snapped back to normal as she was brought out of the world of thoughts. "Let's find a hotel or something, It's only afternoon, but we shouldn't wait until nightfall."

"Yeah, I agree." It was then that Asuna's mind turned back to the subject of money. _That's right, upgrading Silver Stinger dented my Col nicely, but I could have upgraded nearly eight Silver Stingers if I needed to._ "Hey Kirito, how much Col do you have left?"

Kirito was confused by the question, but answered ambiguously. "A lot. Buying a rapier is more expensive than upgrading it, but Volthan gave us a ton of Col, remember? We could eat good in this town for weeks without doing a thing before we would have to worry about money again." Kirito turned and walked away, beckoning Asuna to follow. "If I remember correctly, there should be a hotel over there," he said.

Asuna followed him, slightly mulling over his answer. _Wow. That first day of this game… I thought I would struggle for survival every day for the rest of my life. Not like it has been easy or anything, but I never expected to have so much money, or be so powerful compared to the other players in this game._ Asuna glanced at Kirito's back as she followed him down numerous side-streets that she assumed would lead to a hotel. _And it it's all thanks to him._ She quickly scanned his backside, taking in his height and stance. _It's strange; he's just a regular boy until he's in combat, when I swear he gets taller; but he isn't slouching now or anything…_

Her thoughts were interrupted when Kirito suddenly stopped and started looking around. Asuna looked around as well, expecting to see a hotel nearby, but realized that all of the surrounding stores were restaurants. "Sorry Asuna, I guess I don't remember where the hotels are." Kirito turned and revealed his apologetic face.

Asuna, however, saw through the look on his face; she had long since learned that Kirito was really good at holding a poker face. "You just wanted to eat at one of the restaurants here, didn't you?" Asuna glared at him menacingly, fully convinced that he had planned this from the beginning.

Kirito knew his cover was blown immediately, but decided to backpedal. "N-No that's not it! But while we're here…"

Asuna stared at the face of a boy, showing its true emotion of hope. _I'm more rich and powerful than most of the other players… thanks to him?!_


	19. Chapter 18: Advantage

**Chapter 18: Advantage**

Kirito and Asuna were both standing at the north gate, ready to leave for the 'Quest' that Asuna accepted, called 'The Tree Troupe'. Asuna, with her shiny, red cloak and sparkling, silver rapier, and Kirito with his light, blue body armor and his shining emerald-green sword strapped to his back. Beyond the gate lay a thick forest of evergreen trees, blocking the horizon from sight. Kirito and Asuna's only guide was a dirt path that wound its ways in between trees and farther into the forest.

Kirito was slightly hungrier than he normally was, a result of Asuna only giving him one sandwich for breakfast instead of the regular two. He figured she was still upset about him leading them to a restaurant the previous day instead of a hotel, even though he had led them to the real location of the hotel after the restaurant. _It's not like I didn't like her sandwiches or anything… I just really like that restaurant._ Asuna had also enjoyed the restaurant thoroughly, but nonetheless felt slightly insulted that Kirito didn't just tell her that he wanted to eat at the restaurant.

However, Asuna was no longer upset with him; she knew just how much of an effect her giving him one sandwich instead of two had, and she considered it sufficient revenge.

"Asuna, do we take the road?" Kirito gestured to the dirt path in front of him, and Asuna realized that she had yet to fill Kirito in on the details of her 'Quest'.

"Oh yeah, I haven't told you about the 'Quest' yet," Asuna said in response. "Yeah, we take the road, I'll tell you on the way."

Asuna led the way down the road, but kept glancing towards the trees around them instead of paying attention to the path. "Asuna?" Kirito noticed her staring at the trees rather than the road, and started wondering what she was looking for.

"It's the 'Quest'," Asuna replied, still staring at the trees as she walked down the dirt path. "Our 'Quest' is to find a group of Bandits that call themselves The Tree Troupe and shut them down. When I asked how to find them, the NPC told me that if we walk along this road, we'll get jumped The Tree Troupe eventually, and they hide and retreat back to the treetops."

"Ah," Kirito took to watching the trees around him as well, wondering if it was supposed to be obvious whether or not the Bandits were there. "So we're getting jumped on purpose, and then we're going to shut down The Tree Troupe, right?"

"Yep." Asuna continued down the path. "Although there were no specifications for how long it would be before we were jumped."

A short silence ensued, where both Kirito and Asuna were focused on walking on the path and glancing to the trees around them. The longer the silence went, the more daunting it seemed to try and break the silence with conversation, but Asuna soon found a good conversational topic. "So Kirito, what kind of monsters are in this forest?"

"Uh… well… the forest definitely has the largest variety. To say the least, there's more than Wolves." Kirito stopped, but Asuna fell back into place to be side-by-side with him while he talked, which Kirito correctly interpreted as an invitation to elaborate. "Of what I know, there are regular Wolf Packs here and there, which is to be expected, and there are also some Bears. But those are only the Hostile enemies. Inside here, are Rabbits, Foxes, Deer, and a ton of Insects."

Asuna was confused. "Wait, why would they just now be introducing Non-Hostile monsters?" She looked at Kirito confusedly, momentarily forgetting that he wasn't the creator of the game itself. Luckily for her however, Kirito had an answer.

Scrunching up his eyebrows to let Asuna know he was thinking, he said: "I think it's because all of Floor 1 is basically a tutorial Floor. It's also why all of the seasons is so different in towns; normally an entire floor follows one season, but not the First Floor."

"Oh," Asuna realized. "So it's like showing-off and providing somewhat of a tutorial at the same time." She turned to Kirito again to see whether or not he approved of her conclusion, to which she noticed him thoughtfully nodding in agreeance. "So… why haven't I seen any of the Non-Hostile monsters yet?"

Kirito smiled. "Because you're too busy looking at the treetops. It's just like a regular forest, you know." Asuna immediately took to scanning the area around her; not above her. "There!" Her arm shot out and pointed somewhere to Kirito's right, to which Kirito looked. It was a Deer. They both remained looking at the Deer while walking down the path, before the Deer suddenly tensed and started running. Normally, this wouldn't have worried either Kirito or Asuna, but it ran _past_ them, close enough that Kirito could have reached out and touched it if he wasn't so surprised.

Kirito's sword was drawn in an instant, and Asuna's rapier was quickly at the ready as well. "Kirito, what did you see?" Asuna didn't read the situation as Kirito had.

"Asuna, I told you. This place is just like a real Forest, and the animals are too, so why would a Deer run _towards_ humans?" Kirito kept his eyes and blade at the ready, scanning the area where the Deer had previously been. Asuna suddenly understood and took to scanning the treetops, thinking it might have been The Tree Troupe.

A long silence ensued, and the forest itself seemed to stand still. _I don't get it,_ Asuna thought. _What spooked that Deer? Could it have been a glitch?_ "Asuna," Asuna looked down from the treetops and back to Kirito, who was readying a sword skill, even though she could see no potential enemies. "Duck!" His voice was suddenly urgent, and Asuna instinctively obeyed the voice of her rescuer yet again, ducking to the ground at that same moment that a Wolf leaped out from the bush behind her. The Wolf was met with a Driving Slash from Kirito, and was sent crashing to the ground, in the red of its healthbar and alive by a hair, before it limped to its feet.

Kirito's head did quick work. _Okay, that attack, after connecting with its head, should have done exactly 42 damage; the Wolf is alive, barely, so it probably had a max of 50 health. Wait, Wolves don't attack alone, and 50 health is pretty strong for a Wolf._ "Asuna! There should be more; stay alert!"

But Kirito's warning was quickly nullified as the almost-dead Wolf limped backwards, and two fresh Wolves walked forwards out of the shadows of the forest, taking the injured Wolf's place in combat. Asuna had noticed the two new Wolves, and took a battle stance next to Kirito. "Two one-on-ones, or one two-on-two?" she asked. Kirito's eyes remained focused on the two Wolves in front of him.

"One two-on-two," he responded. "We don't know if there are more somewhere around here." Asuna nodded, and Kirito readied his blade for battle as well. "We'll take the offense," he said simply, before both his and Asuna's weapons began to glow with sword skills.

The two Wolves stood still, seemingly aware of their opponents' choice. The standoff between Kirito and Asuna and the two Wolves was suddenly broken, by the simple uttering of the word "Now," by Kirito. Both Kirito and Asuna rushed forwards, Asuna following behind Kirito.

Kirito aimed for the one Wolf in particular, aware that Wolves became very obsolete when cut down in numbers. The Wolf he was aiming for readied itself, and ran at Kirito low when he got close enough. Kirito adjusted slightly, and released the sword skill Skyward Swipe, which he released at ground level. Connecting first with the low-charging Wolf and then taking to the sky, the Wolf found that he was flung into the air by Kirito's superior 'Strength' stat, and left completely vulnerable to Asuna's Blade Flurry, which followed only a second later.

It was mere seconds later when Kirito and Asuna finished off the third Wolf, the original, wounded Wolf, and a notification of their Victory! appeared. "Guess there were only three of them," Kirito commented. "I guess it makes sense; 50 health is pretty tough for Wolves at this level." The words sank into Asuna as she pressed 'Accept' on her notification. _This is… tough? But that was a breeze…_

Apparently her confusion showed to Kirito, because he took the liberty of explaining. "We have pretty good weapons and stats; much higher than anyone else probably. In fact, we could probably hold our own on Floor 3 right now." Asuna was shocked by the statement, so Kirito continued to explain. "I told you, Asuna, we have really good gear for our level, superior 'Attribute' points, and we're both really good at combat.; we are _easily_ the strongest people in the game right now."

[Time Shift]

Asuna and Kirito still hadn't been jumped. They had walked down the path until they arrived at a small spot where the path opened, where a long, flat, and slightly raised rock stood lay near the path. Now sitting on the rock, Kirito bit into his third sandwich, while Asuna finished her first, and only sandwich deemed for her own lunch. During the walk, Asuna and Kirito had only had to deal with one more pack of Wolves, that once again came in a group of three, and was easily dealt with.

"Still haven't been jumped, huh?" Kirito, Asuna noticed, had apparently finished his third, and last, sandwich.

"Guess not," Asuna responded, thinking nothing of it. "It's probably just up ahead; the forest looks like it's coming to an end soon." While the statement seemed ridiculous, given that neither could see the end of the forest from their current point, Kirito had to agree; the trees were starting to become more spread out, and sunlight was filtering through the leaves of the trees much more than before.

"Are you sure it's _this_ road?" Kirito asked, looking at Asuna with doubt. Asuna glared at Kirito, before replying, " _Yes._ This is the road that the 'Quest' said." Kirito quickly realized that he had offended her, somehow, and turned away.

"OK," he quickly mended. "You're probably right then, it must be right up ahead." With that, Asuna got up from the rock, and Kirito quickly followed her example. Leading the way, Asuna continued down the path, praying that The Tree Troupe would show up soon to prove Kirito wrong.

Within a few minutes, the silhouette of a man walked out from behind a bush farther up in the path. Kirito and Asuna immediately drew their weapons, fully convinced that no other players had made it this far yet. The silhouette walked to the middle of the dirt path that they were walking on, before slowly walking towards Kirito and Asuna, and revealing his face in the sunlight…and his healthbar; Asuna's wish was granted.

The Bandit drew its weapon, a curved longsword, and stopped in his tracks, stopping several paces away from Kirito and Asuna, who both had their weapons at the ready. Suddenly, the Bandit laughed and pointed his blade at the two; the signal. The trees around Kirito and Asuna suddenly shook as Bandits jumped out of them from shadows that the larger branches cast. Before Kirito and Asuna could make a move, they were surrounded by six Bandits.

Asuna glanced at Kirito, expecting him to debrief her on the battle plan, but Kirito was wordless. The member of The Tree Troupe that had provided the signal and Kirito remained staring at each other, a wicked smile plastered on the Bandit's face, and a dead serious expression on Kirito's face. As Asuna watched however, Kirito's face slowly cracked into a smile, and Asuna was left speechless by the unexpected reaction that Kirito had shown. Without breaking eye contact with the Bandit, Kirito simply asked "Ready?"

Asuna then recalled Kirito's words from earlier: **"We are** ** _easily_** **the strongest people in the game right now."** She let the words seep slightly into her ego, before Kirito spoke again. In quite a normal tone, as if holding a normal conversation, Kirito said "Go," and then took off, heading for the Bandit directly in front of him. His sudden rush broke the circle of The Tree Troupe, causing them to suddenly attack, but Asuna had already taken off at Kirito's command, and The Tree Troupe quickly found that the two individuals were wreaking havoc in their ranks on both sides.

Kirito's opponent met blades with Kirito eagerly, but quickly found that Kirito's Standoff was much higher than that of the expected player. With a sudden burst of 'Strength', the Bandit was knocked off-balance, and was met with a Horizon Slash to the midsection, followed by a diagonal Driving Slash; the exact same combo that Kirito had used against Kibaou. With less health than Kibaou however, the Bandit went flying and crashed to the ground hard, leaving its health in the deep red. Kirito swiveled to face his two other opponents, both of which charged Kirito recklessly; they were not coded to recognize a superior enemy, only to attack.

The Bandit that Asuna had charged also lay on the ground, a short distance away from Asuna and in the deep red, but unable to get up or reach its sword after sustaining such damage. The only thing that kept the Bandit from being killed, were the two Bandits that were currently attempting to attack Asuna. However, every swing of their swords hit empty air as Asuna dodged the swings flawlessly. After getting tired of dodging, Asuna activated the sword skill Disarm. Dodging an attempted lunge, Asuna swiped skywards with her sword skill, and sent the sword of the Bandit flying, before using Martial Arts to elbow the Bandit in the stomach and send it to the ground, curled up in pain.

Kirito's three opponents were dead; they had been for about ten seconds now. Instead of helping Asuna however, he simply admired her combat prowess from the outside. Dodging one last sword skill from her only able opponent, Asuna suddenly rushed to the Bandit, kneed him in the stomach with Martial Arts, and released Blade Flurry while the Bandit was staggering backwards.

It wasn't until after Asuna had finished off her final opponent about fifteen seconds later that she noticed Kirito staring. "What?" She asked, suddenly very self-conscious and embarrassed, for whatever it was that she had done.

"That was amazing," Kirito said simply. The Victory! screen appeared, but nothing significant was to be seen, so both of them simply pressed 'Accept' to close the notification.

"Well… thanks," Asuna finished. "But you finished off your opponents quicker…"

"Well yeah, but not nearly with as much style as you! I bet you would be an amazing duelist." With that comment, Kirito sheathed his Emerald Blade back onto his back, and started down the path the way they had come from. "Alright, let's get back to the hotel before it turns to night."

"Yeah…" Asuna agreed. She was unwilling to say anymore; she was afraid that the blush on her face would spread all the way to her speech somehow.


	20. Chapter 19:Cosmetic

**Chapter 19: Cosmetic**

"Alright, the NPC I got the 'Quest' from is over here." Asuna led Kirito through the curved, stone road that she had taken the day before on her way to find a 'Quest'. Kirito however, slowed his pace, which Asuna noticed. "What is it?" she asked.

"Oh it's nothing" Kirito reassured. "I just figured that I should probably try to find a 'Quest' for tomorrow while we're out here" He was already scanning the small crowds of NPCs as they passed, wondering which ones would hold a 'Quest'.

"Alright!" Asuna cheerily agreed. She then resumed her normal pace and took off without Kirito, towards a small group of NPCs that had an '!' hovering above a particular NPC. Kirito immediately strode to a group of NPCs to the right of him, as he had been picking up on small bits of their conversation from afar. As got closer, he began to hear more clearly what he had suspected earlier.

"It was huge!"

"And made of stone!"

"When it punched a tree, the tree fell!"

Three NPCs continued to describe the great feats and features of this unnamed thing to another group of three NPCs, who were significantly more equipped than the other three.

"It was twice our height!"

"And triple our width!"

"Can you kill it?"

The trio of NPCs that held better weapons and gear contemplated briefly with one another, before turning back to the story-telling trio. "I'm sorry, our best men are out hunting, and we don't know when they're coming back."

It was then that Kirito interrupted. "I could deal with it for you guys." The six NPCs all turned their heads to face the intruder of their conversation. "Where is it?" Kirito asked.

[Time Shift]

Asuna, after weaving through a small crowd of NPCs, found the 'Quest-Giver'. The NPC was a woman, middle-aged and a merchant, as she advertised to all who talked to her. "Did you get rid of The Tree Troupe yet?" she asked Asuna as she approached.

"Yep!" Asuna cheerily replied. "They're gone."

The NPC looked relieved. "Now I can finally transport all this stuff to the next town over." The NPC reached into a wooden box beside her and rummaged around for a bit before finally pulling out a pair of earrings. "Here," she said, holding them out to Asuna in the palm of her hand. "As thanks."

The 'Quest Reward' notification appeared in front of Asuna, which she clicked 'Accept' to. Asuna turned away from the NPC and walked back the way she came, scrolling through her inventory while she did so in order to locate the 'Quest Reward'. Finally locating the item, she stopped walking and tapped on the item description.

[Ruby Earrings] – _Decorated with the finest rubies from the mines of –_

Asuna stopped reading when she reached that point. _But… they're useless?_ She tapped on the option to materialize the item, and watched as they appeared in her hand, wondering what their use could possibly be. They were pretty, yes, but an 'Attribute' boost, or even just a 'Skill' boost would be much appreciated.

Before she could examine any further, although she had no idea _how_ she would examine them further, Kirito appeared. With her palm still outstretched and holding the ruby earrings, she looked in confusion at Kirito. "That was fast. Did you find a 'Quest'?"

Kirito nodded. "Sounds like a mini-boss of sorts. A stone golem, just to the east of town. We'll take it on tomorrow." It was then that Kirito noticed what Asuna was holding. "Is that the 'Quest Reward'?"

"Yeah… but I can't figure out what their use is," Asuna picked up one of the earrings in her other hand and held it by the one end, rotating it in the sunlight. The ruby inside sparkled brilliantly, but Asuna ignored it. "The description says nothing, and they look like they do nothing." She glanced at Kirito's face. "They must do something… right?"

Kirito shrugged. "Not necessarily. They might just be a cosmetic."

"A what?"

"A cosmetic. A decoration for a person. They're useless, but some people like them anyways."

Asuna was crestfallen. Her 'Quest Reward' was a useless cosmetic. "Great," she said sarcastically. "Is there _anything_ we can do with this?"

"We could sell it; it's probably worth a lot of Col."

"We already have a lot of Col," Asuna replied, still disappointed in her reward.

"That's true… and it's not like we're going to run out anytime soon." Kirito stared at the ruby earrings in Asuna's palm. "I guess you could do what everyone else does with cosmetics: keep them and wear them."

Asuna had a sudden realization. _If I were in the real world, I would keep these earrings, without hesitation; they really are beautiful._ "Ok, I guess I'll keep them." Asuna tapped the earrings in her palm and pressed the 'Store' button to put them back in her inventory. "So… a stone golem, huh?"

Kirito turned and started walking down the street, to where Asuna knew the hotel was located. "Yeah," he responded. "That's pretty much everything they told me though. Stone golem, east of town, big."

Asuna scrunched up her eyebrows. "Wait… if it's made of stone… how are our weapons supposed to hurt it?"

Kirito's mouth opened, and then closed before any sound came out.

"Guess we'll have to figure it out then," Asuna supplied for him.

"Yeah."

[Time Shift]

Kirito woke up the next morning with a record-breaking 13-second yawn. Asuna of course, was already up, and had finished packing their lunches for the day. Asuna watched the entirety of his impressive yawn, all the while thinking: _It's about time he woke up._ At the end of his yawn however, Kirito made to lay back down onto his pillow, which triggered some quick thinking by Asuna. "Sandwich!" She declared across the room; Kazuto was up in an instant.

Asuna always made Kirito's morning sandwiches extra-spicy, thinking that it would help wake up his system. She was right; somewhat. Kirito was aware of her thinking, and appeared energetic every morning to make sure that Asuna continued to make his sandwiches extra-spicy. Asuna handed Kirito the extra-spicy sandwich, and Kirito devoured it within seconds. "Ready!" he declared.

It was then that he noticed the earrings; Asuna had put them on.

He must have stared for a second too long, because Asuna realized that he was looking at the earrings. _I look silly, don't I?_ "We should sell them, right?" Asuna reached up to dematerialize them back into her inventory.

"No it's not that." Asuna's hand halted just in front of the earring. Kirito only took a second longer before continuing. "I think red just might be your color." Though his tone seemed normal and nonchalant, Kirito's mind had whirred faster than ever to make sure that his comment came out more or less neutral without any possible misinterpretation of an insult; he had succeeded.

"Oh. Thanks," Asuna responded. Her hand left her ear, leaving the earrings in place.

 _Crisis averted_ Kirito thought. "So… to the stone golem!"


	21. Chapter 20: Stone

**Chapter 20: Stone**

Kirito went flying backwards and hit a tree trunk. The loud crack of the otherwise solid-looking tree made Asuna wince as Kirito rag-dolled to the ground before staggering back to his feet. Checking her own healthbar in the top left of her vision, she saw that she was in the high-yellow; relatively okay. Kirito's health was approaching mid-yellow; still okay.

The forest floor shook, tearing Asuna's focus from Kirito to the source of the sound. Standing at slightly more than twice her height, and taking up about three times as much space as her, a hulking humanoid of rock stomped into view. It looked as if someone had taken a large, close-to-square-shaped rock, and attached longer, but equally as thick rocks to the underside and sides of it, resulting in a rock-man. The only indication that the rock-man was indeed alive, was found on the smaller square-shaped rock on top of the body. Right in the middle of the head, evenly spaced from each other and shaped exactly the same, were two triangular holes, that both glowed red.

The forest floor shook again as the Stone Golem took another step. Asuna and Kirito had figured out about two minutes into their fight that the Stone Golem was slow-moving, and decided to use that to their advantage. However, just as Asuna had suspected, the Stone Golem took no damage from their weapons, no matter how hard they tried. They had danced around the Stone Golem for a good hour, slashing and stabbing until they tired; it was then that the Stone Golem struck. Fatigued from their hour of useless combat, Kirito and Asuna both found that dodging the attacks of the Stone Golem was much harder, and took heavy blows.

"Kirito!" Asuna called out. A few trees away, sword still in hand, Kirito looked at Asuna, his attention successfully caught. "We can't continue like this! We need to fall back and get a better plan!" Kirito glanced at the Stone Golem, still several minutes away from being able to swing at either of the two again. After self-concluding that his head had no more ideas after hitting a tree-trunk, he turned back to Asuna and nodded.

Kirito sheathed his sword on his back before he started to jog towards Asuna. "That way," he said, pointing to somewhere past Asuna. He jogged past Asuna and Asuna followed, soon to emerge into an open-field that the Stone Golem was coded to not be allowed in.

Asuna was capable of running much faster than Kirito's pace, especially with her Wind Rider cloak, but she kept her pace even with her wounded partner's. Out of breath and out of energy, Kirito was grateful that Asuna stayed back with him as they jogged to safety. The light seeping through the trees got gradually brighter and brighter as the two neared the edge of the forest, until the trees suddenly ended and a small field was laid out in front of Asuna and Kirito.

A soft 'thump' was heard as Kirito sat down in the grass of the field, panting for breath. Asuna sat down beside him, and materialized a sandwich from her inventory, which she then handed to Kirito.

"Thanks," he said in-between pants. He took the sandwich and took a regular-sized bite out of it before materializing a potion from his inventory. "We should heal up," he said, lifting the potion in emphasis.

The materialization of a second potion signaled that Asuna had gotten the message, and both potions shattered into blue rectangles as Kirito and Asuna both downed their potions. "Well that was terrible," Asuna began.

"Yeah."

"Our weapons did nothing."

"Yeah."

"We need a new plan."

"Yeah."

Asuna materialized a sandwich for herself before turning and looking at Kirito, quickly learning the reason for his repetitive answer; he wasn't done with the sandwich yet. Asuna gave up on conversation and bit into her own sandwich. _How are we supposed to beat a giant rock?_ Next to her, Kirito took a large breath of air, signaling to her that he was done with the sandwich. _Ah well, I'm not done with mine yet, so I guess I'll give him the second one I brought for him._ Asuna paused her eating and materialized another sandwich, which she handed to Kirito.

"Thanks," Kirito said as he took the sandwich. Eating much faster than before, Asuna knew that Kirito was back to normal. She glanced at their healthbars in the top-left of her vision, and confirmed that the both of them were now very near full health.

About ten seconds later, with all three sandwiches gone, Asuna reattempted to start a discussion. "So how are we supposed to beat that Stone Golem?"

Kirito looked at the sky, watching the passing clouds as he thought. "I'm not sure," he started. "I think that if we're high-enough level, our weapons will do damage just fine, but as for now… there's probably a built-in way to beat the Stone Golem at this point, since no 'Quest' is made to be impossible." Kirito stopped talking, lost in thought as to what that built-in way could be.

"Did you notice any possible weak spots?" Asuna asked.

Kirito shook his head.

"Yeah. Me neither."

Kirito replayed the events of the fight in his head. "I don't recall anything ever doing any damage to him."

"Yeah," Asuna agreed. "The most we did was apply a knockback effect, which was when you charged at it head-on, and that cost you half of your health."

Kirito sat silent for a moment, staring at the grass in front of him. "Knockback effect…" Kirito's head shot up. "That's it! Asuna, the knockback effect!"

[Time Shift]

An hour later, Kirito and Asuna both found themselves in the forest again, the Stone Golem in sight. "Asuna, any questions on the plan?" Kirito drew his Emerald Blade.

Asuna drew her Silver Stinger. "Nope."

"Alright, let's do this." Kirito stepped forward, into the boundaries of the 'Quest'. The large rock in front of Kirito started to rumble, before standing up, and opening its glowing-red eyes. The healthbar appeared above the Stone Golem, along with its nametag. Seconds after the nametag appeared, Kirito jumped backwards to avoid a swing by the Stone Golem.

"Alright Asuna, this is the easy part of the plan." Kirito ducked another swing from the Stone Golem and ran under the arm and past the Stone Golem; Asuna quickly followed, not having to dodge anything.

The ground shook as the Stone Golem took a step, now out of swinging range of both of its opponents. "This is going to take a while," Kirito told Asuna.

[Time Shift]

About an hour later, Kirito and Asuna had had the Stone Golem follow them up a mountain path, which was, Kirito now realized, purposefully not outside of the 'Quest Zone'. Kirito reached the peak of the mountain first, quickly followed by Asuna. Looking back down the path, the Stone Golem was seen not far behind.

"Man, his pace didn't even change once we started hiking," Kirito commented. Luckily, Kirito had expected something similar to this, so he set the pace so that both he and Asuna would have plenty of energy for the next part of the plan.

"Ready for phase two of the plan?" Kirito turned to Asuna, who was drawing her Silver Stinger. She looked back and nodded. "This is the hardest part of the plan," Kirito warned. "But I'm pretty sure it should work."

The ground rumbled once again as the Stone Golem started to reach the two of them. Kirito drew his Emerald Blade. "Asuna, take the front to make sure aggro goes to you," Kirito directed. Kirito took up a new position farther away from the steadily approaching Stone Golem, while Asuna stood right where the Stone Golem would be soon. Silver Stinger at the ready, Asuna prepared for her part in the plan.

A few rumblings of the ground later, the Stone Golem was in range of Asuna. It swung horizontally, to which Asuna responded by ducking. Asuna dodged a vertical swing next before jumping backwards, forcing the Stone Golem to take a few more steps. Kirito had silently moved his position, and was now standing a good distance behind the Stone Golem. Asuna dodged another vertical swipe of the Stone Golem and jumped back again. _Just keep the aggro, and keep it moving forward._

Kirito only watched as the Stone Golem followed Asuna. He had insisted that he have Asuna's current role in the plan, but Asuna had countered by saying that he was the only one who had successfully triggered a knockback effect; the knockback effect was crucial to the plan. So he watched on, nervously, reading the Stone Golem's every move and hoping Asuna was doing the same as she dodged.

During a break in the Stone Golem's attacks, Asuna glanced behind her. _Not much room left before the edge of the peak._ Although not high enough to have any snow on the peak, the cliff side of the mountain was 90 degrees, and high enough to kill any fool who fell down. _Better stop jumping,_ she decided. She turned back to the Stone Golem, who was readying a horizontal strike. Asuna ducked, letting the strike fly overhead before she took a few steps back, luring the Stone Golem a step further. _Just a little more,_ she thought.

 _Just a little more,_ Kirito thought. The grip on his Emerald Blade suddenly got tighter, and his muscles tensed. _Almost there..._ He raised his Emerald Blade up to his head, pointing it as Asuna would with his rapier, and holding it with both hands.

Asuna dodged yet another attack and stepped back further, her feet almost at the edge of the cliff. Kirito's Emerald Blade began to glow as he used a sword skill. The Stone Golem took one last step towards Asuna, close enough for the plan to work. Kirito waited. _Asuna has to get around it, and then I do my part._ Asuna repeated the plan inside of her head too, and watched as the Stone Golem readied another vertical strike. She dodged to the right as it came smashing down, but the ground shook terribly as the blow connected with the edge of the cliff. Asuna landed her dodge, but was sent to all fours as she lost her balance on the shaking ground.

The ground started to crack, and it became increasingly more obvious that everything was about to fall. Kirito remained in his previous stance, sword glowing with a readied sword skill. "Asuna!" He yelled. "Get off of that! It's going to collapse!" _How was I supposed to know that the cliff side was coded as 'Destructible'?!_

Asuna got to her feet, intending on leaping away from the shaking ground, but only stumbled a few steps before another vicious crack of the ground put her back on all fours. Kirito rushed forward, sword no longer glowing. The ground started to give, starting with the ground underneath the Stone Golem, who went into a freefall of the mountain. _Nothing but rocks down there,_ Kirito thought, panicked. _We made sure of that so that the plan would work._ Asuna frantically crawled towards the crack in the ground that represented stable ground, while Kirito ran as fast as he could towards Asuna.

However, the ground gave before either of the two could reach their goal. Asuna's hand reached, outstretched, towards the stable ground as she started to fall towards the same fate as the Stone Golem, but Kirito was too far; there was no magic movie moment where he caught her hand as she fell.

Kirito continued running as he accessed his inventory, storing his Emerald Blade quickly and scrolling frantically for another item, pressing buttons by muscle memory as he focused on the now-expanded cliff side a few feet in front of him.

The world had turned to slow-motion for Asuna. She could see her hair as it flowed past her, like a parachute for her head that had opened the wrong way. She watched as bits of earth flew past her, as she fell back-first, watching the ground above her as it got smaller and smaller. _I guess this is the end,_ she realized. _I was never a survivor in the first place…_ She slowly began to close her eyes, accepting her fate, before a sudden streak of movement caught her attention. Realizing what it was, her eyes grew wide with surprise.

Kirito had jumped off of the cliff. His face was hardened again, in battle mode, and he was falling much faster than Asuna was, having angled himself to fall face-first. In his hand, were two blue rectangles. He soon caught up to Asuna as she fell, and pressed one of the blue rectangles inside of her hand; the world returned to its normal speed "Hold it!" He yelled above the wind. "And say: Teleport! Town of Beginnings!"

Asuna had no idea what he was talking about, but decided to do it anyways. Yelling as loud as she could, she gripped the blue rectangle tightly. "Teleport! Town of Beginnings!" She heard Kirito do the same next to her. As soon as she finished her sentence, she was enveloped in blue light, and looked to the side to see Kirito enveloped in the same light. Before she could ask what was going on, her entire field of view turned blue, and sound stopped. A second later, Asuna found herself staring at a paved, stone brick road.

 _What… just happened?_ Her mind was going sluggishly slow, and nothing seemed to make sense anymore. She turned to her side, and saw Kirito, who was attempting to tell her something, but she could hear nothing. She watched as his mouth moved, but no sound came out, and soon, just like her ears, her eyes gave out. She felt the same sensation of falling once again before her consciousness left her.


End file.
